Ring Lardner

"As the Most Famous Journalist of the early twentieth century, Ring Lardner's wry skills as an observer and satirical bent as a writer weren't just confined to the sporting arenas of his day. In 1918 he packed his kit bag and his biting wit and headed off to France on assignment for Colliers, to cast a Lardneresque eye on the Great War. At the same time, he created a new wartime series of letters from the pen of his most famous fictional character -- Jack Keefe -- who had traded in his baseball flannels for military drab. Lardner on War puts together, for the first time, the masterpieces from this era, to introduce the wit, wisdom, and whimsy of Ring Lardner to a new generation of readers. Book jacket."--Jacket.

An annotated and copiously illustrated edition of the 24 short stories published between 1914 and 1919 by Ring Lardner, which include the stories collected later and known as "You know me, Al."

More than any other writer in this century, Ring Lardner (1885-1933) was identified with baseball. He was the first writer to match the American language with the great American pastime. His years covering the Chicago White Sox and Cubs gave him the inside knowledge of the sport and how it reflected the American experience; starting in 1906 as a reporter, Lardner responded to baseball as a social phenomenon. His short stories remain the core of his career, and the basis. Of his enduring reputation. Here are Ring Lardner's complete baseball stories, twelve of them collected in print for the first time. With his unerring eye for detail and his sense of the absurd, Lardner ranges over the entire game. His first published magazine series, "You know Me Al," recounts the travails of Jack Keefe, a minor-league player who remains a Busher even after he reaches the big leagues. Although he eventually wanted to "bench" the character, Lardner. Continued to write Keefe stories to satisfy the public's hunger. At the same time, though, he began to expand his work, introducing new characters, new concerns, new slants on the sport. He went on to probe not only the nature of the game, but also the lives of the men who played it. His famous portraits in "Alibi Ike" and "My Roomy" convey his profound understanding of baseball and the people associated with it. Historically accurate, richly textured, Ring Around the. Bases reveals the master at the height of his craft, and celebrates America at play. This collection, then, is the ultimate lineup in baseball fiction.

A barber regales a customer with stories about some of the characters in his small town.

Contents: Survivors / Elsie Singmaster -- Lost Phoebe / Theodore Dreiser -- Golden honeymoon / Ring W. Lardner -- I'm a fool / Sherwood Anderson -- My old man / Ernest Hemingway -- Telephone call / Dorothy Parker -- Double birthday / Willa Cather -- Faithful wife / Morley Callaghan -- Little wife / William March -- Babylon revisited / F. Scott Fitzgerald-- How beautiful with shoes / Wilbur Daniel Steele -- Resurrection of a life / William Saroyan -- Only the dead know Brooklyn / Thomas Wolfe -- Life in the day of a writer / Tess Slesinger -- Iron City / Lovell Thompson -- Christ in concrete / Pietro Di Donato -- Chrysanthemums / John Steinbeck -- Bright and morning star / Richard Wright -- Hand upon the waters / William Faulkner -- Net / Robert M. Coates -- Nothing ever breaks except the heart / Kay Boyle -- Search through the streets of the city / Irwin Shaw -- Who lived and died believing / Nancy Hale -- Peach stone / Paul Horgan -- Dawn of remembered spring / Jesse Stuart -- Catbird seat / James Thurber -- Of this time, of that place / Lionel Trilling -- Wind and the snow of winter / Walter Van Tilburg Clark -- Enormous radio / John Cheever -- Children are bored on Sunday / Jean Stafford -- NRACP / George P. Elliott -- In Greenwich there are many gravelled walks / Hortense Calisher -- Other foot / Ray Bradbury -- Three players of a summer game / Tennessee Williams -- Mother's tale / James Agee -- Magic barrel / Bernard Malamud -- Circle in the fire / Flannery O'Connor -- First flower / Augusta Wallace Lyons -- Contest for Aaron Gold / Philip Roth -- One ordinary day, with peanuts / Shirley Jackson -- To the wilderness I wander / Frank Butler -- Ledge / Lawrence Sargent Hall -- This morning, this evening, so soon / James Baldwin -- Tell me a riddle / Tillie Olsen -- Old army game / George Garrett -- Pigeon feathers / John Updike -- Sound of a drunken drummer / H.W. Blattner -- Keyhole eye / John Stewart Carter -- Long day's dying / William Eastlake -- Upon the sweeping flood / Joyce Carol Oates.

A collection of lesser known Ring Lardner, including parodies, a group of short nonsense plays, and radio columns written for the "New Yorker".

The Attack on the Fort Sir Tatton Sykes Captain Isaiah Sellers Lady Blessington RMS. Titanic The Man Who Would Be King The Secret Life of Walter Mitty The Lottery The Girls in Their Sunnner Dresses The Furnished Room De Mortuis The Necklace [Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge]( A Piece of Neus I See You Never Haircut Crossing into Poland War The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky Tennessee's Partner [Araby]( The Drunkard The Lament Tickets, Please Eventide Old Red Cruel and Barbarous Treatment A Domestic Dilennna Christ in Flanders Love: Three Pages from a Sportsman's Book Love The Killers The Fly I Want to Knou Why The Adulterous Woman [A Rose for Emily]( A Good Man Is Hard to Find In the Penal Colony Through the Quinquina Glass The Bitch A Father-to-Be The Fight The Far and the Near The Sensible Thing A Christmas Memory Realpolitik The Sailor Boy's Tale Amy Foster The Killing of the Dragon Dermuche Disorder and Early Sorro•-w No Place for You, My Love 1 Write Goodbye, My Brother What Happened Noon Wine Blackberry Winter

"This book maps the creative range of a great American artist. Its 219 images, chosen from more than 20,000, span forty-five years of continuous activity"--Publisher's note (page ).

Autobiography of Ring Lardner, an American sports columnist and short-story writer best known for his satirical writings on sports, marriage, and the theatre.