Chapter 17, High-Forceps Deliveries 1955-1960 Summary and Analysis

Broadway fame does not seem to be in the cards, but Dorothy suddenly finds herself writing fiction again. For the first time in years, Dorothy submits a short story to The New Yorker. Harold Ross had died of cancer in 1951, and the editor is now William Shawn. Dorothy no longer looks at The New Yorker the way she once had, and the coolness between author and publication is evident when her fourth short story of the year is rejected. It is sold instead to Esquire magazine, where Dorothy begins writing a monthly column and begins a close friendship with publisher Arnold Gingrich. The magazine is going through a slump, and new life is suddenly breathed into its pages by the efforts of the great Dorothy Parker. She is paid $600 a month, and offered the first...