Parker’s witty works were initially dismissed as being unserious. Eventually, however, she contributed fiction, poetry, and reviews to publications like Vogue, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker, where she served on the editorial board. She was also the lone female member of the original Algonquin Round Table, an unofficial gathering of acclaimed writers who ate lunch together at the Algonquin Hotel (at least five other women became regular or semi-regular attendees). When she passed away in 1967 she bestowed her literary estate to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated months later.