Kevin Fitzpatrick | |
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Born | Baltimore, Maryland, US | January 10, 1966
Occupation | Writer, |
Kevin C. Fitzpatrick (born January 10, 1966), is an American historian and non-fiction writer. He is best known for his research and writings on Dorothy Parker and the Algonquin Round Table.
Fitzpatrick was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1966, but spent his childhood in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Summit, New Jersey; Raleigh, North Carolina; and St. Louis, Missouri. [1] He is a graduate of Truman State University (formerly Northeast Missouri State University). While a student at NMSU Fitzpatrick co-founded The Pundit, an independent newspaper that served primarily the student population and young adults of the Kirksville, Missouri area. He served six years in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves as a journalist-photographer. [2]
Fitzpatrick has had a varied multimedia career including newspapers, television, advertising agencies, magazines, and more recently web-based publishing and editing. [3] In the latter he has produced close to 75 websites and written for numerous trade publications. When not involved with media pursuits, Fitzpatrick is a certified New York City sightseeing guide, giving walking tours of historic locations, landmarks, cemeteries and drinking establishments. [3] He is also a frequent guest speaker at libraries and literary clubs. Fitzpatrick cites among his biggest influences Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, Franklin P. Adams, and Stanley Walker. [3] Fitzpatrick produces the award-winning dorothyparker.com, which he launched in 1998. He is the president of the Dorothy Parker Society, which he founded in 1999. He was also instrumental in the effort to get Dorothy Parker's birthplace in Long Branch, New Jersey, named a National Literary Landmark by Friends of Libraries USA. [4] Fitzpatrick oversaw the creation of a bronze memorial plaque that was unveiled in August 2005 in Parker's hometown. In 2020 Fitzpatrick brought Parker's ashes from Baltimore to New York City and interred them Woodlawn Cemetery. [5] On August 23, 2021, he unveiled a new gravestone for Parker's family. [6]
In conjunction with the Algonquin Hotel, Fitzpatrick leads walking tours of the former Algonquin Round Table homes and haunts in Manhattan. In 2009 Fitzpatrick founded Donald Books, a small independent publishing company.
Fitzpatrick was elected to The Lambs Theatre Club in May 2015, and became shepherd in 2023. [7]
Fitzpatrick and his family reside in Manhattan and the Town of Shelter Island.[ citation needed ]
Year | Award | Category | Reference |
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2018 | GANYC Apple Award | Outstanding Achievement in Book Writing: Non Fiction, World War I New York: A Guide to the City's Enduring Ties to the Great War | Guides Association for New York City [8] |
2019 | GANYC Apple Award | Outstanding Achievement in Radio Program or Podcast (Audio/Spoken Word), Joanna and Kevin's Big Show Podcast | Guides Association for New York City [9] |
2020 | GANYC Apple Award | Outstanding Achievement in Book Writing: Non Fiction, 111 Places In The Bronx That You Must Not Miss | Guides Association for New York City [10] |
Dorothy Parker was an American poet and writer of fiction, plays and screenplays based in New York; she was known for her caustic wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles.
Sarah Josepha Buell Hale was an American writer, activist, and editor of the most widely circulated magazine in the period before the Civil War, Godey's Lady's Book. She was the author of the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb". Hale famously campaigned for the creation of the American holiday known as Thanksgiving, and for the completion of the Bunker Hill Monument.
The Algonquin Round Table was a group of New York City writers, critics, actors, and wits. Gathering initially as part of a practical joke, members of "The Vicious Circle", as they dubbed themselves, met for lunch each day at the Algonquin Hotel from 1919 until roughly 1929. At these luncheons they engaged in wisecracks, wordplay, and witticisms that, through the newspaper columns of Round Table members, were disseminated across the country.
Alexander Humphreys Woollcott was an American drama critic and commentator for The New Yorker magazine, a member of the Algonquin Round Table, an occasional actor and playwright, and a prominent radio personality.
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Herbert Bayard Swope Sr. was an American editor, journalist and intimate of the Algonquin Round Table. Swope spent most of his career at the New York World. He was the first and three-time recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Reporting. Swope was called the greatest reporter of his time by Lord Northcliffe of the London Daily Mail.
The Algonquin Hotel is a hotel at 59 West 44th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. The 181-room hotel, opened in 1902, was designed by architect Goldwin Starrett for the Puritan Realty Company. The hotel has hosted numerous literary and theatrical notables throughout its history, including members of the Algonquin Round Table club during the early 20th century. Its first owner-manager, Frank Case, established many of the hotel's traditions, including an official hotel cat as well as discounts for struggling authors. The hotel is a New York City designated landmark.
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Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle is a 1994 American biographical drama film directed by Alan Rudolph from a screenplay written by Rudolph and Randy Sue Coburn. The film stars Jennifer Jason Leigh as writer Dorothy Parker and depicts the members of the Algonquin Round Table, a group of writers, actors and critics who met almost every weekday from 1919 to 1929 at Manhattan's Algonquin Hotel.
"Concord Hymn" is a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson written for the 1837 dedication of an obelisk monument in Concord, Massachusetts, commemorating the battles of Lexington and Concord, a series of battles and skirmishes on April 19, 1775 which sparked the American Revolutionary War.
Robert Emmet Sherwood was an American playwright and screenwriter.
The Ten-Year Lunch: The Wit and Legend of the Algonquin Round Table is a 1987 American documentary film by Aviva Slesin.
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The Ralph Waldo Emerson House is a house museum located at 18 Cambridge Turnpike, Concord, Massachusetts, and a National Historic Landmark for its associations with American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. He and his family named the home Bush. The museum is open mid-April to mid-October; an admission fee is charged.
Frank Case was an American hotelier and author. He owned and managed the Algonquin Hotel during the heyday of the Algonquin Round Table and wrote a number of books about his experiences with the hotel and the Round Tablers.
The Wheeler-Minot Farmhouse, also known as the Thoreau Farm or the Henry David Thoreau Birthplace, is a historic house at 341 Virginia Road in Concord, Massachusetts, United States. It is significant as the birthplace of writer Henry David Thoreau. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. It currently serves as a historic house museum and is open to the public.
John Charles Nugent, was an American actor, director, and screenwriter. A veteran stage performer, he appeared in 20 films between 1929 and 1943.
Big Falls is a major waterfall located on the Missouri River in western Montana in the United States. It is the lowermost and largest of the Great Falls of the Missouri, at 87 feet (27 m) high and up to 900 feet (270 m) wide at peak flow. Although the falls used to flow powerfully year-round, most of the water is now diverted to the 60 megawatt hydroelectric plant of upstream Ryan Dam, reducing it to a trickle in the summer months. The dam raised the total height of the water to 177 feet.
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Lee Peter Gelber was an American tour guide and urban historian whose primary expertise was New York City and its environs.