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. 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.

Foreword by James Lardner     Introduction     A Note to Readers     Ring Lardner Tells His Sad, Sad Story to the World     1. Getting Started     South Bend Has Cause to Be Proud of Athletic Record the Past Year     Memoirs of a Baseball Scribe (Part 1)      Memoirs of a Baseball Scribe (Part 2)      Twenty-Six Cubs Will Be Taken on Southern Journey     The Peerless Leader Takes Charge     Record Crowd Opens Forbes Field     P.L.’s Team Leads Arabella to the Altar     Pullman Pastimes: Frank Schulte Is His Own Entertainer     Pullman Pastimes: Dawson’s Reform Credited to Two Cubs     The Rustlers Go Marching Through Georgia     2. Baseball     The First Game     Ring’s All-Stars     Peaches Graham: Nine Men in One     Ty Cobb’s Inside Baseball     Ping Bodie’s Monologue     Matty     Mordecai Brown: The Reporter’s Friend     Noisy John Kling     Casting Stones with Rollie Zeider     Casey in the Field     How to Pitch to Babe Ruth     Baseball Poems     The World Serious     1909 Exhausted Tigers Extend Series     1912 The Tears of Christy Mathewson     1915 A Plea for Help     A Rainy Day in Philadelphia     1916 Your Correspondent Sizes Up the Series     Lardner Story Starts as Verse, Turns to Prose as Fattens Purse     Inning by Inning with the Red Sox and Robins     Nothing Happened     1917 Report from Behind Enemy Lines     The Modern Voltaire     1918 18 Holes     1919 A Hot Tip from the Umpire     Kid’s Strategy Goes Amuck as Jake Doesn’t Die     A Dirty Finger on the Ball     1920 No Need to Bribe Brooklyn     Ring Splits Double-Header     1921 Lardner Hitting 1., Peaved at Weatherman     Scribes Saved from Overflow of Brains     1922 The Most Important World Series in History     The Fur Coat Is Already Bought     Mr. Lardner Corrects a Wrong Impression     It Looks Bad for the Three Little Lardner Kittens     Yanks Lose, But Lardner Kittens Spared     1923 Fans Agrog as Series Opens     Only One Team Could Lose that Game     1925 Blizzards and Politics Hit Pirate Punch     1927 Ring Hears the Game He Is Seeing     Some Final Thoughts on the Game     Oddities of Bleacher Bugs     Kill the Umpire     Why Ring Stopped Covering Baseball     Br’er Rabbit Ball     3. Ring Goes to War     A War Ballad     Why I Can’t Fight     A Free Trip to Europe     A Message to Sec. Baker     Daddy’s Alibi     Ring Hears Government Plans to Scare Mexico     Serve Your Country with a Minimum of Effort     A Good Tip to Friend Al     E’en War So Grim Refuses to Dim Humor of Him     A Ball Game in France     Setting Out for the Front     On Being Bombed     A Letter to Home     Back in Les Etats Unis     What’s the Matter with Kaiser Bill?      Wake Travel Guide (European Branch)      The Do-Without Club     Ring Can’t Smile at War’s End     4. Football     The Perils of Being a Football Writer     Michigan vs. Harvard: A Personal Odyssey     A Letter     How I’ll Get That Story     A Persunal Appeal     A Friend Indeed     Perseverance Wins     He Has It All Planned Out     A Fresh Guy     Where There’s Real Sport     Please Don’t Go and Ruin It All     Blue Monday at Michigan     Wolverines Off for East Today; Big Squad to Go     Yost’s Squad Loses Outfit; Railroad Fails to Drop Off Baggage, Handicapping Workout     Yost’s Cripples Meet Harvard in East Today     Luck Favors Harvard in Beating Michigan     5. Politics     If You Don’t Know What He Writes About You Have Nothing on Him     Ring Takes the “Pomp” Out of Pompey     Key-Noting with Lardner     The United States of Old Glory     Ring Is Through with Conventions But Fielder Jones is O.K.      Me for Mayor     A Taxing Situation     Starve with Hoover or Feast with Lardner     Ring May Run with Debs on Prison Ticket     Ring Says the Race Is Between Himself and Cobb     It Looks Like a Stampede to Lardner     Vice=Presidency     Dressing for the Inauguration Is Some Job     Simplicity Reigns in Washington     Harding Inaugural Is Simps’ Delight     Presidential Golf     Ring Organizes the Ku Klux Klan     No Navy=No Fight     War With Japan May Have to Be Fought with Postcards     Coolidge Awaits Word of Landslide     Lodge Nearly Achieves Acquaintance with Ring     Double-Header in Cleveland Finds Gaps in Bleachers     Ring Will Run Under One Condition     Women Held to Blame for Long Session     Ring Defends His Socks     Ring Wants Bryan Lured Away     Democrats Are Out to Set New World Record     Ring Knew It All Along     Ring’s New Tax Bill to Include Congressmen     Why I Will Vote Socialist     6. Boxing     An Evening Accumulating Culture     Dempsey vs. Willard     Jess’ Stomach Shouldn’t Be Worried     Ring’s Funny Stories Make the Operators Sick     Lardner Hears Peace Trio Will Officiate at Bout     After Seeing Jess in the Movies, Ring Wonders How Jack Can Win     Lardner Won on Allies and Picks Willard Now     When I Picked Jess to Win I Thought He’d Have Two Eyes to See With     Dempsey vs. Carpentier     Getting to Know Geos.      Ring Will Bear Up No Matter Who Wins     Ring Gives Dry Statistics on Preparations for Fight     Ring Uses Strategy to Buzz Frenchman     Lots of “Trebles” at Carpentier’s Ringside     Everything Goes When You Hit Dempsey’s Camp     A Surprise Party for Jack     Ring Sizes Up Critics from Europe     How to Overcome the Shock of Battle     Ring Is Glad He Wasn’t in the Ring     Dempsey vs. Firpo     They Ought to Spell It Furpo     Theys No Doubt Wild Bull Can Hit If Jack Lets Him     No More Salutes from Firpo to Sid     Lardner Sees the Wild Bull     Firpo Takes the Day Off     Ring Discovers What’s Wrong with His Feet         Ring Gives Dempsey Some Advice     Lardner in Great Shape for Wordy Battle     A Word from Bernard Shaw     It Was a FIGHT     Dempsey vs. Tunney     Monosyllables to Jack’s Jaw     Best Fight of Tunney’s Career Found Dempsey at His Worst     7. The Noble Experiment     1919     Prohibition Blues     Some Recipes with Kicks     An Ounce of Prevention     The Benefits of Prohibition     Oh, Shoot!      8. The America’s Cup and Other Sports     Ring Can’t Stand the Excitement of Yacht Racing     Yachts Sail like a Snail with Paralysis     The Closest Race We’ve Slept Though Yet     The Race Is Between a Snail and a Hearse     Too Slow to Give a Kick     Learn to Play Lip Golf     Ring Reviews His Golf Season     A Perfect Day at Saratoga     Tips on Horses     Ring Discovers Polo     How to Stork Big Game     How Winners Quit Winners     Why It’s Called a Dog’s Life     Ring’s Sensitive Nature Recoils at Hockey     With Rod and Gun     9. Family Life     Family Poems     The New Plaything     To the New One     To the Latest     Help Wanted     The Eternal Question     Exit Madge     A Mysterious Antipathy     Parting     Exalted Above His Fellows     Declaration of Independence     Welcome to Spring     The Youngest One Breaks In     Moving to the East     Why Not a Husbands’ Union?      It’s a Good Thing Birthdays Don’t Come Oftener     Got a Radio in Your Home?      Ring Loves His New Radio     Ring’s Long Island Estate Opens to Visitors     Ring’s Water Bill Is $1,643—and Nobody Drinks It     The Latest Dope from Great Neck     Ring Confused with Thunder Shower by Radio Fans     Carpenter’s Concert Mars Ring’s Speech     10. On Journalism     Journalism Poems     Monday     Come On, You Roseate Day     West Town Storm                 This Afternoon     To the Man Higher Up     First Aid     Valentines     Dreaming     A Plea for Mercy     Another Plea for Mercy     Office Secrets     Part 1         Part 2         Part 3         Conquering a Bad Habit     Ring Wants a Day Off     Voice of the People     Mister Toastmaster and Gentlemen     On the Scarcity of Paper for Newspapers     A New System for Running Newspapers     Going Back to Work     11. People, Places, and Pieces of Ring’s Mind     Fifteen Cents Worth     Starring in the Movies with Billie Burke     Marry a Man or Caddy for Him     Keep the Reform Fires Burning     Automatic Writing     Some Cigars Would Cure Any Smoker     Have a Spelling Bee of Your Own     Try Love Letters on Your Creditors     Ring Observes the Miami Mermaids     Ring Discloses His Beauty Secrets     If You Ain’t in the Monday Opera Club, You Don’t Belong     Ring Denies He Owes Chicago $50     A Cordial Greeting from Pola     Swimming the Transit Channels     Christmas Card     From a Bottle Found in the Ocean     With Rope and Gum     12. Parodies and Reviews     Cubist Baseball     The Spoon     Rigoletto     Lilac Time     Mary MacLane and Her Passionate Male Quartette     Madam Butterfly Was Some Insect     Cinderella     Ring Tells the Story of Snow White     A Dog’s Tale     Fifteen Rounds with Shakespeare and Tunney     Your Broadway, Beau, and You Can Have It     Heavy Da-Dee-Dough Boys     Lyricists Strike Pay Dirt     We’re All Sisters Under the Hide of Me     13. Buried Treasure and Night Letters     Buried Treasure     Night Letters     Acknowledgments Notes Selected Bibliography