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On this day in 1893, the American writer, humourist and civil rights activist Dorothy Parker was born.

Famous for her wit and bittersweet observations on life, Dorothy Parker worked on Vanity Fair and the New Yorker before moving to Hollywood as a screenwriter. Her private life was characterised by a succession of unsuccessful affairs and marriages that she often wryly committed to print.

In later life she worked tirelessly for a number of causes including racial understanding. She died in 1967 leaving her estate to Martin Luther King and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Her suggested epitaph: “Excuse my Dust” was oddly relevant because her ashes were left in her agent’s filing cabinet for 17 years before being given proper burial.

This minstrel song from Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado gives an idea of her bittersweet life:

A wandering minstrel I –
A thing of shreds and patches,
Of ballads, songs and snatches,
And dreamy lullaby!
And dreamy lullaby!
My catalogue is long,
Through every passion ranging,
And to your humours changing
I tune my supple song!
I tune my supple song!
Are you in sentimental mood?
I’ll sigh with you, Oh, sorrow!
On maiden’s coldness do you brood?
I’ll do so, too –
Oh, sorrow, sorrow!

Today I will remember all those who struggle with relationships and affairs of the heart.