Biographical sketches of the men (& Dorothy Parker) of the Algonquin Round Table. Filled with funny anecdotes, this is one of the best biographies I've ever read. While some of these people are well-known (such as John Steinbeck and Dorothy Parker), many of them were sadly unfamiliar names to me when I read this. Authors & screen-writers such as Nunnally Johnson and Robert Benchley, S.J. Perelman and Finis Farr, first came to my attention through this amazing book.

Even if you are not a fan of biographies or histories, this book is worth checking out. ( )

this book is a series of biographical essays ... tied together, as noted in the foreword, by their connection to one another and a time and to joe bryan himself apparently. "These were his friends -- that group of writers connected one way or another with the Algonquin Round Table, and those drifting in and out of The New Yorker in its early days, plus a few others that he was drawn to, perhaps out of a dread of the commonplace." (p. viii) And yes, the one lady is Dorothy Parker ...