Literature Network » Ring Lardner

Kill your goddamn darlings, honey

Content courtesy of

From: The Independent on Sunday
Date: 20071111
Author:TIM MARTIN

The New Granta Book of the American Short Story

ed Richard Ford Granta Pounds 25

There's a story about Ring Lardner, told of him (or against him) by his editor, Harold Ross, that claims his method of writing a story was to put down a few wildly distinct phrases on a piece of paper, leave them to stew, then go back later "and fill in the spaces". Admittedly, any writer who calls his first collection How to Write Short Stories is probably askin g for it, but true or not, such whimsicality about the form is notably absent from much of Richard Ford's formidable New Granta Book of the American ...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Other Articles on Ring Lardner

About Our Articles: We've partnered with Highbeam Research to provide these article excerpts for your research needs. However, due to copyright laws, we cannot publish the whole article. To view these articles in full length you'll need to use the link above to access the free trial at Highbeam.