Literary Monmouth: Dan Weeks on Woollcott at Library Headquarters

Discover Monmouth County author Alexander Woolcott at a special Literary Monmouth discussion led by Rutgers' Dan Weeks, on Saturday, May 3 at 2 p.m. at Library Headquarters in Manalapan. 

Many famous authors were born in Monmouth County: Norman Mailer, poet Robert Pinsky and Edmund Wilson to name a few. But none were more colorful than Alexander Woollcott, the force at the center of the Algonquin Round Table. Woollcott was born in the Utopian commune, the North American Phalanx in what is now Colts Neck Township.

Woollcott was known for his vitriolic prose, and traded savage and notable quips with fellow Monmouth County-born writer, Dorothy Parker. On film, he was the inspiration for Moss Hart's The Man Who Came to Dinner and as the imperious critic, Waldo Lydecker in the movie Laura.

Daniel Weeks, an assistant research professor at the Thomas A. Edison Papers, Rutgers University, is currently at work on a book about four Monmouth County writers of the 1920s, including Alexander Woollcott. Weeks has also published six collections of poetry, the latest of which is Virginia: A Narrative Sequence of Poems (Blast Press, 2009).

Library Headquarters is located at 125 Symmes Drive, Manalapan 07726. Please call the Library at 732-431-7220 x7222 for more information.