8 famous women writers in New York City

Dorothy Parker (pictured below), Zora Neale Thurston, Shirley Jackson, Gael Greene, Patti Smith, Susan Sontag, Tama Janowitz and Kate Christensen—eight writers of different times, of different styles, of different interests, of pretty much different everything. Brent Cox puts together an article explaining and comparing what it was like for them to live in New York City. Because, let's face it, if you want to be a writer, you have spend at least some time in Manhattan. Right?

Day jobs were needed as the women got their careers started, and some were writing-related, and some were real stinkers. The rent was murder, of course, and it still is. Just about everything is more expensive than anywhere else. Cox is especially concerned about the financial picture. Think about Dorothy Parker and company dining at the Algonquin:

Amidst the wisecracks and the bon mots hurtling back and forth, the room that held the Round Table was a restaurant, providing sustenance to the well-heeled clientele (and the Round Tablers). While Dorothy was more likely to rely on the charity of the hotel, happy to have a famous/notorious regular, the blue-plate special (half of a spring chicken, two veggies and French fries), was going for $1.65 in 1927, the height of the Round Table's fame. Convert that into 2012 dollars and you get $21.59... The bootleg Scotch that Dorothy's first husband would pick up to keep the couple lubricated in 1922 was going for $12 a quart (a princely $162.62 in current dollars).

Prohibition was expensive!

Check out What It Cost Eight Women Writers To Make It In New York.
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