Dorothy Parker's Last Wish: The NAACP and a Lost Urn

Subscriber-only episode

How did Martin Luther King Jr. (and eventually, the NAACP) end up the stewards of Dorothy Parker’s literary estate? A life of bold activism prompted the witty writer to quietly bequeath her body of work to advocates for racial justice. But what happened to her actual body (or rather, her ashes) is another story entirely—one that involves misplaced remains, an abandoned urn, and a decades-long effort to find her a proper resting place.

Mentioned in this episode:

“The Improbable Journey of Dorothy Parker’s Ashes” by Laurie Gwen Shapiro

“54 Years Late, Dorothy Parker Finally Gets Her Tombstone” by Robert Simonson

A Star is Born (1937)

The Algonquin Round Table

Scottsboro Boys

“Epitaph for a Darling Lady”

The Dorothy Parker Society

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