A group of writers, editors, playwrights and various hangers-on who met for lunch at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City between 1919 and 1934, talking about their work, trading jibes, and becoming the American cultural phenomenon of the 1920s. It began as a public relations event, but grew to become the single most exclusive social event in the city, to which people would do almost anything to be invited.
The most famous Round Tablers were Dorothy Parker, Alexander Woollcott, Robert Benchley, George S. Kaufman, Jerome Kern, and Robert E. Sherwood, but over the decade-and-change that the Round Table was in the spotlight, literally hundreds of people took their places at the table and took their chances against the withering wit of people like Woollcott and Parker.
For more on the Round Table, see Wit's End by James R. Gaines (Harcourt Brace Javonovich, 1977).