Ring Lardner's influence on American letters is arguably greater
than that of any other American writer in the early part of the
twentieth century. Lauded by critics and the public for his
groundbreaking short stories, Lardner was also the country's
best-known journalist in the 1920s and early 1930s, when his
voice was all but inescapable in American newspapers and
magazines. Lardner's trenchant, observant, sly, and cynical writing
style, along with a deep understanding of human foibles, made his
articles wonderfully readable and his words resonate to this day.
Ron Rapoport has gathered the best of Lardner's journalism from his
earliest days at the South Bend Times through his years at the
Chicago Tribune and his weekly column for the Bell Syndicate, which
appeared in 150 newspapers and reached eight million readers. In
these columns Lardner not only covered the great sporting events of
the era—from Jack Dempsey's fights to the World Series and even an
America's Cup—he also wrote about politics, war, and Prohibition,
as well as parodies, poems, and penetrating observations on
American life.The Lost Journalism of Ring Lardner reintroduces this
journalistic giant and his work and shows Lardner to be the rarest
of writers: a spot-on chronicler of his time and place who remains
contemporary to subsequent generations.