Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

While looking for something completely different yesterday, I discovered that not only is there a Robert Benchley Society but there is also a Dorothy Parker Society. Which led me to poking about on the net to find out who else from the Algonquin Round Table (a.k.a. "The Vicious Circle") had a society. Well, it doesn't look like any of them do. Not even James Thurber.

After we had lunch we went on one of our exciting outings: an hour or two in a book store. A chain, to be sure -- it's all that's left -- but a book store nonetheless and I looked for whatever I could find by some of the Algonquin habitues. Unbelievable. Almost nothing. All they had was one copy of the new edition of the Portable Dorothy Parker. No Benchley. No S.J. Perelman. No Alexander Woollcott. No James Thurber. No Ring Lardner. No George S. Kaufman.

Glory fades and fame is fleeting.