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Ring Lardner
Ring Lardner, Sr. (1885-1933), Jazz Age American humorist, sports columnist, and master of the short story, known for use of informal language and colloquial humor. Ringgold Wilmer Lardner was born in Niles, Michigan to parents Henry and Lena. The Lardner’s were a wealthy family, and Lardner had a privileged upbringing. After graduating from high school, Lardner began working for the South Bend, Indiana Times as a sports reporter. He honed his skills covering baseball and moved on to Chicago. America at that time, particularly the larger cities, had highly competitive newspapers and a growing passion for baseball. Lardner began at the weakest of the four large Chicago papers, the Inter-Ocean, but quickly moved to the Examiner and finally the powerhouse Chicago Tribune, primarily reporting on the Chicago White Sox baseball club.
In 1910, while still writing for the Tribune, Lardner began writing satiric columns narrated by a fictional “bush leaguer.” These columns were the beginnings of one of his most famous works You Know Me, Al, published in 1916. By 1913, his columns were bringing him into the public’s attention and his stories were being published in The Saturday Evening Post and Esquire. In 1911, his four-year courtship with Ellis Abbot resulted in their marriage. Their son, Ring Lardner, Jr., was born in 1915.
In addition to his short stories and columns, Lardner tried his hand several times at writing for theater, but with very limited success. His best-known play, co-authored by Broadway legend George S. Kaufman was the comedy June Moon. However, his short stories, including Hair Cut, Some Like Them Cold, The Golden Honeymoon, and Alibi Ike were highly popular, featuring characters who spoke in a vernacular familiar to most Americans. Though the characters, like those of Lardner’s contemporary Damon Runyon, were often lacking in education and self-awareness, they could still engender a certain sympathy from the reader.
In 1919, the story of the Chicago “Black Sox” scandal broke. Lardner, having covered the team for many years, felt especially betrayed by the players who threw the World Series. He was never able to embrace the sport again in the same way. Soon after the scandal, Lardner moved to Great Neck, New York. Despite some reports that he “abandoned” baseball writing after the scandal, he did still, from time to time, covered the sport, though usually with a jaundice eye.
In Great Neck, the Lardners began their friendship with F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda. Lardner, more than a decade Fitzgerald’s senior and a man of reserved demeanor, seemed an unlikely candidate for friendship with the 26-year-old writer who represented both the best and the worst of the Jazz Age. However, the friendship, fueled by alcohol, was a lasting one. Fitzgerald brought Lardner into his publisher, Charles Scribner’s Sons, and assisted Lardner with the selection of material for How to Write Short Stories, the collection that finally brought Lardner critical success. In turn, Lardner assisted Fitzgerald with the editing of The Great Gatsby. Though the Fitzgeralds left Great Neck in 1924, the friendship continued for many years after.
Years of drinking, combined with tuberculosis, were already beginning to tell on Lardner. He continued writing, working on seven more books for Scribners and trying unsuccessfully to complete a full novel. In 1933, Lardner suffered a heart attack and died at the age of 48. Fitzgerald wrote an elegy, “Ring,” for The New Republic. Lardner’s son went on to become an award-winning screenwriter, but is probably best known for becoming one of the “Hollywood 10” a group of motion picture professionals who refused to “name names” for the House UnAmerican Activities Committee in 1947 and as a result, were blacklisted in Hollywood for many years. Lardner Junior died in 2000.
Biography written by Renee Wallace for Jalic Inc. Copyright Jalic Inc 2005. All Rights Reserved.
The above biography is copyrighted. Do not republish it without permission.
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