Compares Lardner's rise from sports writing and humor to serious literature with the similar rise of O. Henry and of Mark Twain.

Overton has a lively and humorous style and seems to enjoy and respect Lardner.  His physical descriptions of Lardner, "the only quiet person in New York" (46), are memorable.  Insights gleened from an interview with Lardner include Lardner's favorable opinion of and help with Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (45), Lardner's love for the baseball "moron" he writes about (46), Lardner's admitted inability to write a novel (46), and Lardner's love of music (47).  Overton gives a brief overview of the books in the edition--You Know Me Al, Gullible's Travels, The Big Town, How to Write Short Stories, and What of It? (48-49) and makes specific comments about "Champion" from How to Write Short Stories (46), the nonsense plays from What of It? (47) (Lardner denies writing them to satirize the Moscow Art Theatre, saying he has written them long before there was such a thing and also noting that "plays are among the very few things he enjoys writing") (47), "The Golden Honeymoon" from How to Write Short Stories (47), and "Some Like Them Cold" from How to Write Short Stories (48-49).  He also gives a brief overview of the major critical response to Lardner (Stallings, Rascoe, Mencken, Broun, and Barrie) which he describes as mostly "apple sauce" (49).     

A short but well documented analysis of "The Love Nest" as a case study "in how the 'abusive' manipulator of discourse effectively succeeds in imposing his own interpretation of reality" in Lardner's fiction.

Explains reactions of Lardner's dual audience--the hoi polloi and the intelligentsia--as being different reactions within the same social context of twentieth century capitalist culture; offers a useful tool to examine these reactions--his five-step model of the double-bind that ties society to a certain system.

Followed by K & R's "Something New," 122-24, & L's "The Gelska Cup," 126-27, with introduction by Ring Lardner, Jr., 125.

A thorough examination of the relationship between Lardner and Baseball; includes many primary and secondary examples.

Review of all of Lardner's reissued books; makes interesting comments on Lardner's nonsense plays.

Reports an interview with Lardner during which Lardner cites his influences, his appraisal of Twain, and his attitude toward writing; indicates that he was tired of writing first-person dialect stories and he would like to be writing "fiction of an entirely different sort."

Article by Ring's nephew; offers insights into the final days of his life and clearly traces the early influences of Lardner's life in Niles through his career.

Collection of Ring's thoughts on G. Bernard Shaw as boxing expert.

Well documented laudatory appraisal of Lardner, who Webb considers "a literary artist."

In this well documented and formulated essay, Webb argues that "judgments of Ring Lardner and his work have become stereotyped and thus distorted." Instead of viewing Lardner as essentially a comic writer or considering him a misanthrope, Webb proposes that more benefit would come from studying the dominant theme in Lardner's writing, which, he states, is "the problem of communication."

Is a good example of those critics who saw great promise in Lardner's fiction after the publication of How to Write Short Stories.

An appraisal of You Know Me Al. Contends that Lardner was producing the best American fiction of the time primarily because he let the characters act without authorial interference; theorizes that games provide "a centre" for Lardner's American characters.

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