Ring Lardner (1885–1933)
Author of You know Me Al: A Busher's Letters
About the Author
Ringgold Wilmer Lardner was born on March 6, 1885 in Niles, Mich. His unusual first name came from the Civil War Union admiral Cadwallader Ringgold, but he disliked his name and shortened it to Ring. Although he came to journalism somewhat by chance, taking a position that had originally been show more offered to his brother, Lardner soon found his niche, writing first about sports, particularly baseball, and later a humor column. Lardner worked as a sportswriter for several papers, including the Chicago American, the Boston American, and The Chicago Tribune. Eventually he began to write short stories, and today he is best known for his stories about baseball, and in particular You Know Me Al, a series of letters from Jack Keefe, a fictional baseball star, to his hometown friend, Al. The letters first appeared in The Saturday Evening Post in 1914, and then were published in book form in 1916. Other short-story collections include Round Up, The Busher Returns, Gullible's Travels, and First and Last. Lardner also wrote one novel, The Big Town, and collaborated with George S. Kaufman on the play June Moon, which opened on Broadway in 1929 and was filmed a year later. Ring Lardner died in East Hampton, Long Island, N.Y. in 1933. Lardner's son, Ring Lardner, Jr., is also a writer whose credits include the screenplay for the movie M*A*S*H. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Disambiguation Notice:
Ring Lardner, 1885-1933, was the father of Ring Lardner, Jr., 1915-2000. Please do not combine these authors.
Works by Ring Lardner
Ring Lardner's You know me Al: The comic strip adventures of Jack Keefe (A Harvest book) (1979) 19 copies
I Can't Breathe 3 copies
Jack Keefe Stories 3 copies
Zone Of Quiet 2 copies
The Indispensable Ring Lardner 2 copies
BIR DERT KI 2 copies
Calatoriile lui Gullible 1 copy
Urban Cowboy 1 copy
Guantes de oro 1 copy
Round Up, Notes From the Editors, From the Limited Edition Collection, the Collected Stories of the World's Greatest Writers (1981) 1 copy
Poetry 1 copy
Short Fiction 1 copy
Harmony 1 copy
Dinner bridge 1 copy
Old Folks' Christmas 1 copy
Short Stories 1 copy
Lost In The Horse-Latitudes 1 copy
Alibi Ike 1 copy
Liberty Hall 1 copy
Who Dealt? 1 copy
The Maysville Minstrel 1 copy
Mr. Frisbie 1 copy
Hurry Kane 1 copy
A Day With Conrad Green 1 copy
Horseshoes 1 copy
There Are Smiles 1 copy
Anniversary 1 copy
Reunion 1 copy
Travelogue 1 copy
My Roomy 1 copy
A Caddy's Diary 1 copy
Mr. And Mrs. Fix-It 1 copy
Abend Di Anni Nouveau 1 copy
Three Without, Doubled 1 copy
Carmen 1 copy
Associated Works
Perrine's Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense (1970) — Contributor, some editions — 892 copies, 4 reviews
The 50 Funniest American Writers: An Anthology of Humor from Mark Twain to The Onion (2011) — Contributor — 284 copies, 3 reviews
Classic American Short Stories [Barnes & Noble Leatherbound Classics] (2001) — Contributor — 174 copies, 1 review
The Vicious Circle: Mystery and Crime Stories by Members of the Algonquin Round Table (2007) — Contributor — 99 copies, 1 review
Out of the Best Books: An Anthology of Literature, Vol. 5: Community Responsibility (1969) — Contributor — 30 copies
The Greatest American Short Stories: Twenty Classics of Our Heritage (1953) — Contributor — 21 copies, 1 review
The Best Short Stories of 1922 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story (2017) — Contributor — 7 copies
The Best Short Stories of 1926 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story (1926) — Contributor — 3 copies
Modern Short Stories — Contributor — 3 copies
Rex Lardner Selects the Best of Sports Fiction — Contributor — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Lardner, Ringgold Wilmer
- Birthdate
- 1885-03-06
- Date of death
- 1933-09-25
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Armour Institute of Technology
- Occupations
- sports columnist
short story writer - Organizations
- Chicago Tribune
South Bend Times - Relationships
- Lardner, Ring, Jr. (son)
Lardner, Kate (granddaughter)
Lardner, George (grandson)
Lardner, John (son)
Lardner Jr., George (great-nephew) - Short biography
- Ringgold Wilmer "Ring" Lardner (March 5, 1885 – September 25, 1933) was an American sports columnist and short-story writer.
- Cause of death
- heart ailment
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Niles, Michigan, USA
- Place of death
- East Hampton, New York, USA
- Disambiguation notice
- Ring Lardner, 1885-1933, was the father of Ring Lardner, Jr., 1915-2000. Please do not combine these authors.
- Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
Love this story with its unreliable narrator, who doesn't seem to see what clearly lies behind the words in his story about Jim Kimble, the town prankster. Short story perfection.
A lot of people probably first encounter Lardner when they're assigned to read "Haircut" or "Golden Honeymoon" in high school or a little earlier. Nothing wrong with that, of course, since he's entertaining and laugh-out-loud funny. But what you don't really grasp in high school is how subtle Lardner is -- if there was ever a writer who wrote more brilliant unreliable narrator stories, I've yet to find him. (And yeah, I'm counting Nabokov.) I'm damned if I know how Lardner does it -- I show more couldn't explain well it if you paid me -- but his characters totally lack self-awareness while at the same time revealing themselves completely. (Check out "Old Folks Honeymoon" and "Liberty Hall" for the best examples.) And boy, does Lardner ever have an crackerjack ear for dialog. show less
Lardner's story of a small town wit--who wasn't witty at all--and what happened to him is a nice, quick read that let's us feel superior to all those small town folks! Perhaps characters like this are found everywhere, but they stand out more in small towns due to less competition.
The short story, mastered: compelling narrative, deeply ironic without being didactic, a tour-de-force about banal immorality, both of the actor Jim and of the profoundly obtuse narrator, the chuckling barber. What is proffered as amusing is actually a scary tale about depravity and complicity.
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Statistics
- Works
- 100
- Also by
- 95
- Members
- 1,813
- Popularity
- #14,179
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 36
- ISBNs
- 185
- Languages
- 8
- Favorited
- 5