Go behind the scenes with Algonquin's fiction writers in this issue of the Algonquin Reader, featuring essays by the authors of and excerpts from The Sleepy Hollow Family Almanac by Kris D'Agostino, Heading Out to Wonderful by Robert Goolrick, Pocket Kings by Ted Heller, All Woman and Springtime by Brandon Jones, and The Coldest Night by Robert Olmstead. In each original essay, the author discusses the inspiration behind his novel. A terrific resource for book clubs.
The wit at the poker table tended to be less sophisticated than the luncheon banter - one can't consider the possibilities of a three card flush and simultaneously create nifties - but it was at the poker table that the Round Tablers revealed, in their firehouse funnies, their substantially small town origins. Every one of them came from the hinterlands exept my father.
"That is the thing about New York," wrote Dorothy Parker in 1928. "It is always a little more than you had hoped for. Each day, there, is so definitely a new day." Now you can journey back there, in time, to a grand city teeming with hidden bars, luxurious movie palaces, and dazzling skyscrapers. In these places, Dorothy Parker and her cohorts in the Vicious Circle at the infamous Algonquin Round Table sharpened their wit, polished their writing, and captured the energy and elegance of the time. Robert Benchley, Parker’s best friend, became the first managing editor of Vanity Fair before Irving Berlin spotted him onstage in a Vicious Circle revue and helped launch his acting career. Edna Ferber, an occasional member of the group, wrote the Pulitzer-winning bestseller So Big as well as Show Boat and Cimarron. Jane Grant pressed her first husband, Harold Ross, into starting The New Yorker. Neysa McMein, reputedly “rode elephants in circus parades and dashed from her studio to follow passing fire engines.” Dorothy Parker wrote for Vanity Fair and Vogue before ascending the throne as queen of the Round Table, earning everlasting fame (but rather less fortune) for her award-winning short stories and unforgettable poems. Alexander Woollcott, the centerpiece of the group, worked as drama critic for the Times and the World, wrote profiles of his friends for The New Yorker, and lives on today as Sheridan Whiteside in The Man Who Came to Dinner. Explore their favorite salons and saloons, their homes and offices (most still standing), while learning about their colorful careers and private lives. Packed with archival photos, drawings, and other images--including never-before-published material--this illustrated historical guide includes current information on all locations. Use it to retrace the footsteps of the Algonquin Round Table, and you’ll discover that the golden age of Gotham still surrounds us.
One morning legendary wit Dorothy Parker discovers someone under Manhattan's famed Algonquin Round Table. A little early for a passed out drunk, isn't it? But he's not dead drunk, just dead. When a charming writer from Mississippi named Billy Faulkner becomes a suspect in the murder, Dorothy decides to dabble in a little detective work, enlisting her literary cohorts. It's up to the Algonquins to outwit the true culprit-preferably before cocktail hour-and before the clever killer turns the tables on them.
Informative, easy-to read text and oversized photographs draw in readers as they learn about the Algonquin. Traditional ways of life, including social structure, homes, food, art, clothing, and more are covered. A map highlights the tribe's homeland, while fun facts and a timeline with photos help break up the text. Also discussed is contact with Europeans and American settlers, as well as how the people keep their culture alive today. The book closes with a quote from a tribe leader. Readers are left with a deeper understanding of the Algonquin people. Table of contents, glossary, and index included. Aligned to Common Core standards and correlated to state standards. Big Buddy Books is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.
This novel follows the story of a warrior named Mahingan and his family as they live the traditional Algonquin way of life long before Europeans arrived in North America. Hunting and warfare are daily concerns, and signs point to a defining conflict between Mahingan's nation and its enemies.
A descendant of a Micmac chief, the author presents a book on Native American spirituality. Outlining the Seven Points of Respect for Native American ceremonies, he goes on to describe their way of life: They don't write in metaphor, they speak it; they don't recite poetry, they live it.
Why should Dorothy Parker’s friends be the only ones making “enviable names” in “science, art, and parlor games”? Dorothy can play with the best of them—as she sets out to prove at a New Year’s Eve party at the Algonquin Hotel. Since the swanky soiree is happening in the penthouse suite of swashbuckling star Douglas Fairbanks, some derring-do is called for. How about a little game of “Murder”? Each partygoer draws a card to be detective, murderer, or victim. But young Broadway starlet Bibi Bibelot trumps them all when her dead body is found in the bathtub. No one knows who the killer is, but one thing is for sure—they won’t be making gin in that bathtub. When more partiers are put in peril, it becomes clear the game is indeed on, and it’s up to Dorothy, surprise guest Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and the members of the Round Table to stay alive—and relatively sober—long enough to find the killer…
In June 1919, the Algonquin Hotel became the site of the daily meetings of the Algonquin Round Table, a group of journalists, authors, publicists and actors who gathered to exchange bon mots over lunch in the main dining room. The group met almost daily for the better part of ten years. Some of the core members of the “Vicious Circle” included Franklin P. Adams, Robert Benchley, Heywood Broun, Marc Connelly, Jane Grant, Ruth Hale, George S. Kaufman, Harpo Marx, Neysa McMein, Dorothy Parker, Harold Ross, Robert E. Sherwood and Alexander Woollcott. George S. Kaufman, Heywood Broun, and Edna Ferber, who influenced writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, were also a part of the August assembly, and as founders of The New Yorker magazine, all hotel guests receive free copies to this day. Frank Case, owner of the Algonquin Hotel from 1907 until his death in 1946, ensured a daily luncheon for the talented group of young writers by treating them to free celery and popovers, and they were provided with their own table and waiter. All members were affiliated with the Algonquin Round Table, although they referred to themselves as the Vicious Circle. In this memoir, first published in 1951, Frank Case’s daughter Margaret Case Harriman recounts the diverting history of what was an innocent lunch group at her father’s hotel and illustrates how it grew to become an important factor in literature, the theatre, and American wit and humor... “A lively, chatty, entertaining work, touched with nostalgia.”—Chicago Sunday Tribune “Mrs. Harriman brings vividly to mind and to memory some of the most vivid people who ever sat around a table...She writes with enthusiasm and charm.”—New York Herald Tribune Book Review “Phenomenal...Congrats, as Connolly says, from the Bunch.”—Franklin P. Adams “A lovingly observed and brilliantly written chronicle of an era that didn’t know it was one.”—Deems Taylo
The second title in our already popular provincial alphabet series, A is for Algonquin Park: An Ontario Alphabet introduces young readers to all the beauty of this spectacular province. Written with the charm and knowledge of a life long resident, A is for Algonquin Park teaches youngsters of all ages about Ontario's inhabitants, history, flora and fauna, movers and shakers. As with our other two-tiered alphabet books, A is for Algonquin Park answers a variety of questions about one of Canada's most picturesque provinces. Is the longest street in the world really in Ontario? And the world's longest skating rink? What is the Group of Seven? A is for Algonquin Park is Lovenia Gorman's first book. She lives in Toronto, Ontario. Melanie Rose has illustrated six other titles for Sleeping Bear. She lives near Toronto, Ontario.
