Dorothy Parker? Franklin Pierce Adams? Apocryphal?
Dear Quote Investigator: The notable wit Dorothy Parker constructed several epitaphs. I am interested in the following:
She is happy, for she knows
That her dust is very pretty.
This topic is confusing because I’ve also seen a different version of these lines:
She is happy, for she knows
That her dust is very charming.
Did Parker craft either of these? Does either appear on her headstone?
Quote Investigator: QI has examined several other epitaphs that have been attributed to Dorothy Parker. Here is a link to a webpage with pointers to the separate analyses.
Dorothy Parker died in 1967. Her last will and testament did not specify where she wished her remains to rest. Her parents and grandparents were buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. In 2021 living family members in conjunction with fans and supporters agreed to place Parker’s ashes in Woodlawn Cemetery and to install a headstone. The marker was inscribed with her name, her birth year, her death year, and an epigraph.[ref] 2021 August 26, The New York Times (Online), 54 Years Late, Dorothy Parker Finally Gets a Tombstone by Robert Simonson, No Page Number Specified, New York. (ProQuest) [/ref]
The four line verse on the monument was selected by Parker’s relatives and supporters. The words originally appeared as the final stanza of Parker’s poem “Epitaph for a Darling Lady” which was published in her 1926 collection “Enough Rope”. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:[ref] 1926 Copyright, Enough Rope by Dorothy Parker, Poem: Epitaph for a Darling Lady, Quote Page 27, Horace Liveright, New York. (Google Books Full View) link [/ref]
Epitaph for a Darling Lady
All her hours were yellow sands,
Blown in foolish whorls and tassels
Slipping warmly through her hands;
Patted into little castles.Shiny day on shiny day
Tumble in a rainbow clutter,
As she flipped them all away.
Sent them spinning down the gutter.Leave for her a red young rose.
Go your way, and save your pity;
She is happy, for she knows
That her dust is very pretty.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Interestingly, Dorothy Parker wrote two different versions of the poem titled “Epitaph for a Darling Lady”. The first version was published by Parker’s friend Franklin Pierce Adams in his widely distributed column “The Conning Tower” in August 1925. Parker received credit. The two versions were semantically similar, but the phrasing and vocabulary differed:[ref] 1925 August 4, The Erie Daily Times, The Conning Tower by F.P.A. (Franklin Pierce Adams), Poem: Epitaph for a Darling Lady, Quote Page 8, Column 6, Erie, Pennsylvania. (GenealogyBank) [/ref]
EPITAPH FOR A DARLING LADY.
All her hours were shiny sands,
Blown in foolish whorls and tassels;
Slipping warmly through her hands;
Patted into little castles.Pretty day on pretty day
Tumbled in a rainbow clutter,
As she flipped them all away,
Sent them spinning down the gutter.Leave for her a red young rose,
Gay and scented and alarming;
She is happy, for she knows
That her dust is very charming.
In 1926 Dorothy Parker published the collection “Enough Rope” as mentioned previously.
In February 1927 “The Independent” journal of New York City published a review of “Enough Rope” and reprinted the final stanza of “Epitaph for a Darling Lady” from the book:[ref] 1927 February 5, The Independent, New Books in Brief Review, Review of “Enough Rope” by Dorothy Parker, Start Page 164, Quote Page 169, Column 1, New York. (ProQuest) [/ref]
That life’s lovely futility continually stuns or startles her to “dip and drive the idling pen” is her perhaps enviable asset; that she revolves her poems almost entirely about that saddening pivot tends to make her not only the feminine galante, which is her publisher’s confident appraisal, but an indubitable egoist as well. Yet
Leave for her a red young rose,
Go your way, and save your pity;
She is happy, for she knows
That her dust is very pretty.
Also, in February 1927 a reviewer in “The Times-Picayune” of New Orleans, Louisiana examined “The Second Conning Tower Book”. The reviewer reprinted the final stanza of the version of Parker’s poem from Franklin Pierce Adams’s column:[ref] 1927 February 13, The Times-Picayune, Section: Sunday Magazine, Literature and Less, A Page on Books of the Day Conducted by John M’Clure, Quote Page 4, Column 4, New Orleans, Louisiana. (GenealogyBank) [/ref]
She writes, too, in “Epitaph for a Darling Lady”:
Leave for her a red young rose,
Gay and scented and alarming;
She is happy, for she knows
That her dust is very charming.
In 1970 John Keats published the biography “You Might as Well Live: The Life and Times of Dorothy Parker”. Keats reprinted the version of the poem from “Enough Rope” together with this comment:[ref] 1970, You Might as Well Live: The Life and Times of Dorothy Parker by John Keats, Part 2, Section 6, Quote Page 118, Simon and Schuster, New York. (Verified with hardcopy) [/ref]
She called that poem, “Epitaph for a Darling Lady.” It could as easily have been an epitaph for an era.
In 1988 the ashes of Dorothy Parker were buried at the national headquarters of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) in Baltimore, Maryland as reported in “The Baltimore Sun”. Parker had bequeathed her estate to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when she died in 1967, but she had not specified a location for her cremains. The journalist in “The Sun” began the newspaper article by quoting the final four lines of “Epitaph for a Darling Lady” from “Enough Rope”.[ref] 1988 October 21, The Baltimore Sun, Parker ashes’ burial marks end of the story by Jane A. Smith, (Article epigraph), Quote Page D1, Column 2, Baltimore, Maryland. (ProQuest) [/ref]
In 2020 the leaders of the NAACP proposed moving its headquarters from Baltimore to Washington, D.C. During this process, Parker’s ashes were transferred to Woodlawn Cemetery in 2021 as reported in “The New York Times”. Family and friends erected a headstone inscribed with the final stanza of the poem from “Enough Rope”.[ref] 2021 August 26, The New York Times (Online), 54 Years Late, Dorothy Parker Finally Gets a Tombstone by Robert Simonson, No Page Number Specified, New York. (ProQuest) [/ref]
In conclusion, Dorothy Parker authored two different versions of the poem “Epitaph for a Darling Lady”. One version appeared in 1925 in the “The Conning Tower” newspaper column of Parker’s friend Franklin Pierce Adams. Another version appeared in the 1926 collection “Enough Rope”.
Parker died in 1967. After a peripatetic existence, her remains were finally buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx in 2021. Her headstone was inscribed with the final four lines of the second version of “Epitaph for a Darling Lady” from “Enough Rope” in 1926.
(Great thanks to the Jeopardy television game show. On March 9, 2022 the Final Jeopardy question was about this quotation. This led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.)