What do you think?
Rate this book
By a Stroke of Luck!: An Autobiography
Book by Stewart, Donald Ogden
- GenresNonfiction
302 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1975
About the author
Donald Ogden Stewart
35 books2 followersDonald Ogden Stewart was an American author and screenwriter, best known for his sophisticated golden era comedies and melodramas, such as The Philadelphia Story (based on the play by Philip Barry), Tarnished Lady, and Love Affair. Stewart worked with a number of the great directors of his time, including George Cukor (a frequent collaborator), Michael Curtiz and Ernst Lubitsch. Stewart was also a member of the Algonquin Round Table, and the model for Bill Gorton in The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. His 1922 parody on etiquette, Perfect Behavior was a favorite book of P. G. Wodehouse.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 18, 2018
My slow but dogged pursuit of every notable humorist of the 1920s and surrounding decades continues. Like most show-business autobiographies, this is less a coherent summary of a life than a series of anecdotes of variable quality, but it was an interesting life. A social-climbing Yale graduate feeling he had to live down his father's embezzlement, DOS lucked into a 1919 acquaintance with F. Scott Fitzgerald (he read This Side of Paradise in manuscript), which turned into a front row seat at the splendid drunken twenties.
A man who ended his friendship with Ernest Hemingway (he's prominent in The Sun Also Rises) over the latter reciting an insulting poem about his even better friend Dorothy Parker is a man with stories to tell, and although after a certain point of success the book primarily becomes a lists of famous guests at lists of parties, his dramatist's eye for a telling anecdote remains good. His third-act conversion to full-fledged Communism, though just as hapless as much of the rest of his life (he was terribly naive about Stalin), was equally charmed: he never even had to testify before HUAC, retiring in dignified exile to England, where he hosted W. E. B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson.
I read it mostly to try to get more background on the novels of the 1920s which I've loved for several years now (and written about here, although not all the reviews remain up; see here for those), and it was gratifying to see that I had correctly spotted a couple of references to his social circle in The Crazy Fool, and even chosen the same lengthy quotation from Mr and Mrs Haddock Abroad that he did to illustrate the work. If I am able to write the actual essay on the subject that I hope to, I'll be grateful to this book.
Still, it's not a great book that everyone should read; you have to already be a pretty hardcore nerd about Stewart's era and milieu to keep interested. I am, of course, so it was enough.
A man who ended his friendship with Ernest Hemingway (he's prominent in The Sun Also Rises) over the latter reciting an insulting poem about his even better friend Dorothy Parker is a man with stories to tell, and although after a certain point of success the book primarily becomes a lists of famous guests at lists of parties, his dramatist's eye for a telling anecdote remains good. His third-act conversion to full-fledged Communism, though just as hapless as much of the rest of his life (he was terribly naive about Stalin), was equally charmed: he never even had to testify before HUAC, retiring in dignified exile to England, where he hosted W. E. B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson.
I read it mostly to try to get more background on the novels of the 1920s which I've loved for several years now (and written about here, although not all the reviews remain up; see here for those), and it was gratifying to see that I had correctly spotted a couple of references to his social circle in The Crazy Fool, and even chosen the same lengthy quotation from Mr and Mrs Haddock Abroad that he did to illustrate the work. If I am able to write the actual essay on the subject that I hope to, I'll be grateful to this book.
Still, it's not a great book that everyone should read; you have to already be a pretty hardcore nerd about Stewart's era and milieu to keep interested. I am, of course, so it was enough.
July 13, 2023
DOS won an Oscar for his screenplay adaptation of Philip Barry's play, The Philadelphia Story, which is my favorite movie. I'm also a fan of his parody book of etiquette, Perfect Behavior. He's also known for favorite plays and films such as Holiday, Love Affair, Life With Father, and Tarnished Lady.
I was less interested in the first twenty years...DOS was surprisingly naive and even prudish, living a well-behaved and boring Midwestern life. But as we got into the stories of his life as a writer, my interest was maintained.
Yes, he basically failed his way upwards and lucked into several careers, but the underlying innocence from which he came ultimately colors every play, every script, every story with hope and an unwavering faith in humanity which I respect.
Of course, it's terribly fun to read about events and friendships with such legends as Ernest Hemingway, Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker, Gerald and Sara Murphy, Ruth Gordon, Katharine Hepburn, Paul Robeson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and others. There is no sniping, no controversial gossip, just facts and opinions on the personalities of the day. DOS somewhat managed to escape the worst of McCarthyism, despite being Blacklisted in Hollywood as one of the Ten. Interesting life, too be sure!
I was less interested in the first twenty years...DOS was surprisingly naive and even prudish, living a well-behaved and boring Midwestern life. But as we got into the stories of his life as a writer, my interest was maintained.
Yes, he basically failed his way upwards and lucked into several careers, but the underlying innocence from which he came ultimately colors every play, every script, every story with hope and an unwavering faith in humanity which I respect.
Of course, it's terribly fun to read about events and friendships with such legends as Ernest Hemingway, Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker, Gerald and Sara Murphy, Ruth Gordon, Katharine Hepburn, Paul Robeson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and others. There is no sniping, no controversial gossip, just facts and opinions on the personalities of the day. DOS somewhat managed to escape the worst of McCarthyism, despite being Blacklisted in Hollywood as one of the Ten. Interesting life, too be sure!
April 1, 2026
I've somewhat randomly been a fan of DOS for some time, since my brother happened across some of his humor books years ago and we loved them. And The Philadelphia Story is one of my favorite movies.
Interesting to read this time-capsule memoir. DOS's time at Yale, his high-society life in the 1920s, his ridiculous roster of famous friends (Fitzgerald! Hemingway! Dorothy Parker! Dos Passos! Chaplin! Hepburn and Tracy! W.E.B. DuBois! and the list goes on and on), his admirable discovery of political commitments that was hampered some by continued naivete (he really bought into Stalin and the idea of the USSR as a workers' paradise)...
He's an amiable companion but the real interest for me was the colorful historical context from some fascinating parts of the 20th Century.
Interesting to read this time-capsule memoir. DOS's time at Yale, his high-society life in the 1920s, his ridiculous roster of famous friends (Fitzgerald! Hemingway! Dorothy Parker! Dos Passos! Chaplin! Hepburn and Tracy! W.E.B. DuBois! and the list goes on and on), his admirable discovery of political commitments that was hampered some by continued naivete (he really bought into Stalin and the idea of the USSR as a workers' paradise)...
He's an amiable companion but the real interest for me was the colorful historical context from some fascinating parts of the 20th Century.
Currently Reading
January 31, 2025Donald Ogden Stewart grew up in my hometown Columbus, Ohio, at the turn of the century and I devoured the detailed descriptions of his early life on streets I am fairly familiar with.
He is surprisingly frank in his talk about sex for someone from this era when things were only alluded to.
He is surprisingly frank in his talk about sex for someone from this era when things were only alluded to.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews