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The Algonquin Round Table New York: A Historical Guide

Kevin C. Fitzpatrick (Goodreads Author),

Anthony Melchiorri (Foreword)

really liked it 4.00 · Rating details · 57 ratings · 10 reviews

"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 ...more

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Hardcover, 288 pages

Published November 4th 2014 by Lyons Press

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Feb 07, 2016 Amanda rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction-photographs-memoirs

This was a very interesting read. I've been reading lately, a fictional series based around these people. And also, I just finished reading Harpo Marx's autobiography, where he talked about Alexander Woollcott a lot and some other people at the Algonquin table. It was real neat to read about the history these people had on New York and how much of their lives, still live on there today. The photos of New York during the 20's and also the photo's of the people that sat at the table are amazing. ...more

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Jan 06, 2015 Terin rated it it was amazing

As if From a Magic Lamp, The Algonquin Roundtable Comes Alive Between Two Covers, March 5, 2015
By
Terin Miller "The Bull Guy"

This review is from: The Algonquin Round Table New York: A Historical Guide

Did you know that the "Tony" award given for best Broadway performances is named after actress-director Antoinette Perry, longtime friend and possibly paramour of big-time Broadway producer, and Algonquin Round Table member Brock Pemberton? Or that Angelica Houston's maternal grandfather was a big- As if From a Magic Lamp, The Algonquin Roundtable Comes Alive Between Two Covers, March 5, 2015
By
Terin Miller "The Bull Guy"

This review is from: The Algonquin Round Table New York: A Historical Guide

Did you know that the "Tony" award given for best Broadway performances is named after actress-director Antoinette Perry, longtime friend and possibly paramour of big-time Broadway producer, and Algonquin Round Table member Brock Pemberton? Or that Angelica Houston's maternal grandfather was a big-time speakeasy owner and bootlegger, Tony Soma, and that her brother, Tony Huston, is named after him? And she is named after his first wife, Angelica, whose daughter Enrica "Rikki" was a ballet dancer and Angelica Huston's mother?
These are just a few of the gems of historic information touching on events and people today contained in Kevin Fitzpatrick's excellently written, and as well researched, The Algonquin Round Table New York: a historical guide, published this year by Lyons Press.
Fitzpatrick, a long-time Dorothy Parker researcher who founded New York's Dorothy Parker Society, and who conducts walking tours of locations haunted by Round Table members, takes his penchant for research and interviews to a new level with exacting profiles of each member of "The Vicious Circle," made famous by themselves and each other in their luncheons at The Algonquin Hotel.
There are names profiled you may never have heard of, as well as names you may have heard of but never associated with the Round Table, such as comedian Harpo Marx, Deems Taylor, Neysa McMein or Frank Sullivan and actress Peggy Wood.
As Fitzpatrick aptly and deftly weaves into his history, without the now famous nearly 10 years of lunches and other activities, much of what is considered quintessential New York--the magazine The Newyorker, as well as plays, literature, poetry, radio shows and a literary celebrity culture--might never have existed.
It all happened one afternoon when two Broadway promoters decided to throw a lunch for New York Times theater critic Alexander Woollcott upon his return to New York from working for the then-new Army newspaper Stars and Stripes, which was developed to entertain and keep informed American Doughboys in France during the U.S. participation in World War I.
By the time you finish reading Fitzpatrick's book, you feel as if you've shared lunch with each and every member profiled at some point in your life, and you'll feel sad when you learn the fates of most--gone by middle age in various states of denouement from the fame they gained in their mid-to-late 20s, when having survived war (some, like Laurence Stallings, with disabling wounds), both "over there" and at home, as a group they sought fun and, because the majority worked for newspapers or magazines, not only found it but spread each others' exploits to increasingly wider audiences.
It seems fitting that, in many ways, the party ended when The Great Depression hit, much like F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose fame rose almost in tandem with that of the table filled with his friends, found it hard to write as he had at a more prosperous, hope-filled time.
Above all, Fitzpatrick's history of The Round Table is time captured between two covers, populated with people who had no idea how wide or long they'd be famous, or if they would, but who thoroughly enjoyed each others' company as good friends do. And who helped each other become famous, and inspired and challenged each others' talents, merely by sharing lunch with them every afternoon except Sundays for a decade.
To have such friends! To have such fun! And to have it all contained between the walls of the restaurant of a posh hotel!
For anyone interested in literary history, journalism history, hotel history or even history of New York, Broadway or Prohibition, I recommend this book. ...more

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Dec 01, 2014 Zeb Kantrowitz rated it really liked it

Shelves: netgalley-read

On a June day in 1919, Alexander Woollcott, who was just back from the war (WW1), decided to invite some friends to have lunch at the Algonquin Hotel. Everyone had a great time and someone said, “Why don’t we do this every day?” And so they did for ten years until the ‘great depression’ spread them all over the world in an effort to make a living and later to report on WW2.

The “Round Table” was called the Vicious Circle by those who were members of this elite group that was to include the most ...more

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Jan 29, 2015 Susan Jaffe Pober rated it it was amazing

What an amazing group of people to have come together for lunch at a hotel restaurant. They were witty, intelligent, literate as well as irritating, egotistical and biting. Mr. Fitzpatrick paints a vivid picture not just of the "Vicious Circle", which is what they called their group, but of the times in which they lived. Included in the book are biographies of the Round Table participants; biographies of the Algonquin Hotel and other hotels of the day; and a portrait of the literary world of New ...more

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Jan 02, 2015 Mandy rated it really liked it

There’s a wealth of information and anecdote in this painstakingly researched study of the famous (or infamous) Algonquin Round Table members, who met daily for many years to lunch and talk and share ideas. The roll call includes Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, Edna Ferber and Harpo Marx, amongst many others. Dubbed “The Vicious Circle” they’re a Who’s Who of the New York literary scene and author Kevin Fitzpatrick is an expert on their lives and successes and, inevitably, failures. He also chr ...more

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Jan 02, 2016 Dan rated it liked it · review of another edition

A nice walking tour of a very particular history

I love reading about the Vicious Circle and the Algonquin Round Table, so I picked this up thinking it would provide some good stories. Contrary to my expectations, the book turns out to be a guide to the locales in New York associated with the Algonquin, the New Yorker magazine, and all the people who moved in and around the Vicious Circle. There are indeed anecdotes, but because of the focus on locations and buildings, it's a bit disjointed. The ...more

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Jan 20, 2015 Joseph rated it really liked it

Shelves: reading-challenge-2015, e-books

An enlightening overview of the exploits of New York City's literary, theater and newspaper royalty from the end of WWI to the beginning of WWII. The Algonquin Round Table, known by the inner circle as The Vicious Circle, formed in 1919 and included such luminaries as Dorothy Parker, Harpo Marx and Robert Benchley, and the local press clamored to publish their every word.

While the story of the Table takes center stage, the books also spends time going over the beginnings of the now venerable Ne ...more

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Jan 05, 2015 Nicole rated it it was amazing

A must read for Round Table devotees. This book gives us fun anecdotes, as well as wonderful bio's on all of the main members. It also provides readers with addresses of their homes and haunts (easy to find in their bold font) that we can seek out and see for ourselves. A true historical guide to help us feel closer to all the talent, imagination, and wit that we can never seem to get enough of. Fitzpatrick helps the magic of The Algonquin Round Table stay alive for future generations to learn a ...more

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Feb 02, 2015 Trav S.D. rated it it was amazing

https://travsd.wordpress.com/2015/01/... ...more

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Jun 10, 2015 Lynda rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction-history

Fascinating guide to the people and places of the Algonquin Hotel's Vicious Circle. Pocket-sized, thin edition with brief entries. ...more

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Sep 26, 2016

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About Kevin C. Fitzpatrick

Kevin C. Fitzpatrick

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Kevin Fitzpatrick is the author and editor of eight books that are all tied to New York City history. His most recent is 111 Places in the Bronx That You Must Not Miss (Emons), the first guide to the borough in five years. His previous book, World War One New York: A Guide to the City’s Enduring Ties to the Great War (Globe Pequot Press); won the Apple Award for Outstanding Achievement in Non-Fict ...more