| Allen, Walter. The Short Story in
English. New York: Oxford UP, 1981. Offers a brief |
| |
survey (on pages 131-134) of the critical
reactions to How to Write Short Stories; credits
Lardner with "transmitting what was initially a
stock comic device [the use of the slang vernacular] into
an instrument of satire, while at the same time . . .
contributing to the liberation of American prose from the
tyranny of its English heritage" (131). |
| Bement, Douglas. Weaving the
Short Story. New York: Richard R. Smith, Inc., 1931.
Uses |
| |
several Lardner short stories to
illustrate points about how to use dialogue,
characterization, etc.; includes detailed analysis of
"The Golden Honeymoon." |
| Bier, Jesse. The Rise and Fall of American Humor.
New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, |
| Blair, Walter and Hamlin Hill. America's Humor:
From Poor Richard to Doonesbury. New |
| |
York: Oxford UP, 1978. Comments on
Lardner's place in American humor; draws attention to the
increase in lunacy and psychologically deranged
characters in his later writings; considers the
most important contribution of Lardner is that he saw and
exposed "the gauche hypocrisy that underlay the
middle-class ethic, the bloodletting that constituted
human relationships." |
| Bonheim, Helmut. The Narrative Modes: Techniques
of the Short Story. Cambridge: D.S. . |
| |
Brewer, 1982. Uses several Lardner short
stories to illustrate how best to begin and end short
stories |
| Brooks, Cleanth and Robert P. Warren. The Scope
of Fiction. New York: |
| |
Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1960.
Advances a moralist interpretation of "Haircut"
wherein Jim is a joker who finally gets his due; takes
narrator at face value, saying that he really does admire
Jim; says purpose of narrator is to create irony, a
device used to invoke reader participation. |
| Bruccoli, Matthew. Introduction. Some Champions.
By Ring Lardner. Eds. Matthew Bruccoli |
| |
and Richard Layman. New York: Scribner's
1976. Argues that the decline in Lardner's stature as an
artist in the years following his death is undeserved and
that it may have resulted primarily from America's
uncomfortable feeling about humorists. |
| ---. Ed. Ernest Hemingway's Apprenticeship: Oak
Park, 1916-1917. Washington: NCR |
| Caruthers, Clifford M. Foreword. Ring
Around Max: The Correspondence of Ring Lardner |
| |
and Max Perkins. By Ring Lardner
and Max Perkins. Ed. Clifford Caruthers. Dekalb, IL:
Northern Illinois UP, 1973. An interesting account of the
relationship between Max Perkins, the Scribners editor,
and Lardner. |
| ---. Introduction. Letters From Ring. By
Ring Lardner. Ed. Caruthers. Flint MI: Waldon |
| |
Press, 1979. Claims that the letters of
Ring are important because they give insight into the
feelings and attitudes of Lardner and dispel the opinion
of Fadiman and others that Lardner was a misanthrope. |
| DeMuth, James. Small Town
Chicago: The Comic Perspective of Finley Peter Dunne, |
| |
George Ade, Ring Lardner. Port
Washington, NY: Kennikat Press, 1980. |
| Diot, Rolande. "'Gullible's Dribbles': Du
reportage sportif au naturalisme dans les nouvelles de |
| |
Ring Lardner." Seminaires 1980.
Eds. Jean Beranger and Jean Cazemajou, Jean. Annales du
Centre de Recherches sur l'Amerique Anglophone 6.
Talence: Pubs. de la Maisons de Sciences de l'Homme
d'Aquitaine Univ. de Bordeaux III, 1981. 119-130. |
| Duffey, Bernard. "Humor, Chicago Style." The
Comic Imagination in American Literature. |
| |
Ed. Louis D. Rubin Jr. New Brunswick, NJ:
Rutgers UP, 1973. Documents Lardner's influences,
influence, and place in the Chicago humor tradition. |
| Everett, Barbara. "The New Style
of Sweeney Agonistes." English Satire and the
Satiric |
| |
Tradition. Ed. Claude Rawson.
Oxford: Blackwell, 1984. 243-263. |
| Fenton, Charles A. The
Apprenticeship of Ernest Hemingway. New York:
Farrar, Straus, |
| |
and Young, 1954: 22-26, 59. Cites
Lardner's newspaper columns and stories as one of the
influences on Hemingway, contributing to his knowledge of
the use of common language. |
| Ford, Corey. The Time of Laughter. Boston:
Little, Brown and Co., 1967. |
| |
Offers some personal reminiscences about
his admiration for and encounter with the silent
"and yet curiously appealing" Lardner, as well
as some insights about some of the author's favorite
Lardner pieces. |
| Gardiner, Ellen. "'Engendered in
Melancholy': Ring Lardner's 'Who Dealt.'" Ring
Lardner and |
| |
the Other. Douglas Robinson. New
York: Oxford UP, 1992. |
| Geismar, Maxwell. "Ring Lardner: Like Something
was Going to Happen." Writers in Crisis: |
| |
The American Novel Between Two Wars.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, Co., 1942. According to
Patrick, it is one of the first extended discussions of
Lardner's fiction; holds similar view to Fadiman about
Lardner's attitude toward his characters; compares
Lardner to Hemingway on pages 74-78. |
| ---. Introduction. The Ring Lardner Reader.
By Ring Lardner. Ed. Geismer. New York: |
| |
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1963. A
bare-bones biographical and critical introduction to
Lardner. |
| Goldhurst, William. "Ring Lardner." F.
Scott Fitzgerald and his Contemporaries. Cleveland: |
| |
The World Publishing Co., 1963. A very
skillful and thorough account of the personal and
professional relationships between Fitzgerald and
Lardner; shows each of their influences on the other's
work. |
| Herbst, Josephine. Introduction. Gullible's
Travels, Etc. By Ring Lardner. Chicago: U of |
| Higgs, Robert J. Laurel and Thorn: The Athlete in
American Literature. UP of Kentucky, |
| |
1981. Comments on the savage characters
of "Champion" and "My Roomie." |
| Holmes, Charles S. "Ring Lardner: Reluctant
Artist." A Question of Quality: Popularity and |
| |
Value in Modern Creative Writing.
Ed. Louis Filler. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green
University Popular Press, 1976. A well written and
documented study of Ring Lardner as both "popular
entertainer and genuine artist;" posits that Lardner
excels as both and can best be described as a writer of
satiric comedy. |
| Ingram, Forrest L. "Fun at the
Incinerating Plant: Lardner's Wry Waste Land." The
Twenties: |
| |
Fiction, Poetry, Drama. Ed.
Warren French. Deland, FL: Everett/Edwards, 1975. Says
that Lardner's fiction became increasingly dark and
grimy, but always evokes the "grimacing smile of
self-recognition;" that Lardner essentially
satirizes the general "foibles" of being human.
The appraisal ends with an invented letter, allegedly
found in the effects of Lardner's character Sarah E.
Spooldripper, which describes what it's like to be a
character in "Champion." |
| Keough, William. Punchlines: The
Violence of American Humor. New York: Paragon |
| Lardner, Ring Jr. Foreword. Some
Champions. By Ring Lardner. Ed. Matthew J. Bruccoli |
| |
and Richard Layman. New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons, 1976. Says he doesn't want his father to
be over-collected, that his reputation should be based on
his best work. |
| ---. Foreword. Letters From Ring. Ed.
Clifford M. Caruthers. Flint MI: Waldon Press, 1979. |
| |
Tells of Ring's habit of throwing
everything away, saving none of the letters sent him or
many of his short stories. |
| ---. "Ring Lardner's 'Carmen.'" Sherwood
Anderson: Centennial Studies. Ed. Hilbert H. |
| |
Campbell and Charles E. Troy, NY:
Whitston, 1976. 131-55. Previously unpublished play. |
| Lewisohn, Ludwig. Expression in America. New
York: Harper and Brothers, 1932. |
| |
Describes Lardner as a
"neo-naturalist;" sees his "bitter and
brutal stories" as belonging "not only to
literature but to the history of civilization." |
| Martin, Edward A. H.L. Mencken and
the Debunkers. Athens: The U of Georgia P, 1984. |
| Masson, Thomas L. "Ring Lardner." Our
American Humorists. New York: Moffat, Yard and |
| |
Co., 1922. Views Lardner as an important
American humorist. |
| Mencken, Henry L. The American Language: An
Inquiry into the Development of English |
| |
in the United States. 2nd ed.,
revised and enlarged. New York: Knopf, 1921. Includes
a discussion of Lardner's rendering of common
American speech (274-77); and a sample of his
"baseball-American" (404-5). |
| ---. "Lardner." Prejudices, Fifth Series.
New York: Knopf, 1926. |
| |
Contends that no "contemporary
American, sober or gay, writes better," but that
Lardner will not receive the critical attention he
deserves until after the character types and
circumstances he portrayed are gone. |
| Messenger, Christian K. Sport and the Spirit of
Play in American Fiction: Hawthorne to |
| |
Faulkner. New York: Columbia UP,
1981. Gives a detailed and balanced account of Lardner's
personal connection with baseball and his attitude toward
the sport as shown in his writing. |
| Meredith, Scott. "The Quiet Man." George
S. Kaufman and his Friends. Garden City, NY: |
| |
Doubleday, 1974. Provides details of the
Kaufman-Lardner collaboration, June Moon, and of their
continuing relationship; sometimes inaccurate when giving
general biographical background of Lardner and goes
overboard on support of Fadiman's view. |
| Morris, Toni J. "Shifting Perspectives and
Attitudes: Problems with First Person Point of |
| |
View." Transformations: From
Literature to Film. Ed. Douglas Radcliff-Umstead.
Kent: Romance Langs Dept., Kent State U, 1987. 25-29.
Studies "The Golden Honeymoon." |
| Munson, Gorham. "The Recapture of the
Storyable." University Review Autumn, 1943:
42. |
| Noverr, Douglas A. "The Small Town and Urban Midwest in Ring
Lardner's You Know Me |
| |
Al. MidAmerica XXV. Ed. David D.
Anderson. East Lansing, MI: The Midwestern Press, 1998.
68-77.
Easily one of the most intelligent readings of You Know Me Al to
date. Positioning himself against earlier critics who described
Jack Keefe, the busher hero of the book, in purely negative terms,
Noverr uses a combination of relevant textual evidence, knowledge of the
social milieu in which the book takes place, and sound logic, to
construct a more balanced and sympathetic portrait. Rather
than exclusively concentrating on what Keefe says and does, Noverr takes
into account the story's narratee and what he represents into account.
Because of his baseball talent, Keefe is thrust into a complex,
competitive, and expensive world--for all intents and purposes, a
foreign land. The letters show his longing for his small town
home, its people, and the positive values they represent. |
| Phelan, James. "Narrative
Discourse, Literary Character, and Ideology." Reading
Narrative: |
| |
Form, Ethics, Ideology. Ed.
James Phelan. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 1989. 132-146.
Studies "Haircut." |
| Pogel, Nancy and Paul P. Somers Jr. "Literary
Humor." Humor in America: A Research |
| |
Guide to Genres and Topics. Ed.
Lawrence E. Mintz. New York: Greenwood Press, 1988.
Places Lardner as a transitional figure in American
humor, bringing vernacular humor to a higher than
previously achieved level and laying the ground work for
later comedy of dementia. |
| Rourke, Constance. American
Humor: A Study of the National Character. New York: |
| |
Harcourt, Brace, and Co., 1931. Places
Lardner and his use of distinctly American speech within
the native tradition of American humor. |
| Rubin, Louis D, Jr, "The Barber Kept on
Shaving." The Comic Imagination in American |
| |
Literature. Ed. Rubin. New
Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 1973. Says the flatness of the
common language used by Lardner's characters is
"employed to a savagely satirical advantage"
and exposes the "cultural starvation" of its
users. |
| Seldes, Gilbert. "The
Singular--Although Dual--Eminence of Ring Lardner." American
|
| |
Criticism. Ed. William A. Drake.
New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1926. Discusses Lardner's dual
standing as popular comic and high-brow satirist. |
| ---. Editor's Introduction. The Portable Ring
Lardner. New York: The Viking Press, 1946. |
| |
An excellent general commentary on
Lardner. |
| ---. "Mr. Dooley, Meet Mr. Lardner." The
7 Lively Arts. New York: Harper and Brothers, |
| |
1957. Contends that the "stories and
fantasies" are "the really memorable
things" of Lardner's fiction and that the important
feature of Lardner's use of vernacular wasn't how
accurately it portrayed the way in which people really
spoke, but was the way it showed what they were really
thinking. |
| Sherman, Stuart. "Ring Lardner: Hardboiled
Americans." The Main Stream. New York: |
| |
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1927. Laudatory
appraisal of the universal appeal and sardonic satire of
Lardner, who he describes as a "hard-boiled
realist." The only fault he finds with Lardner is
his use of comic introductions to his serious stories. |
| Smith, Leverett T., Jr. The American Dream and
the National Game. Bowling Green, Ohio: |
| |
Bowling Green U Popular P., 1975. Chapter
on Lardner. |
| Spatz, Jonas. "Ring Lardner: Not an Escape, but
a Reflection." The Twenties: Fiction, |
| |
Poetry, Drama. Ed. Warren
French. Deland, FL: Everett/Edwards, 1975. Considers
Lardner's fiction as a product of the "age of
humor" and a statement of social satire which
uncovers the boredom and horror behind the middle-class
American dream. |
| Thurston, Jarvis A. "Ring
Lardner's 'Ex Parte.'" Reading Modern Short
Stories. Chicago: |
| |
Scott, Foresman, 1955. An analysis of
"Ex Parte." |
| Wheelock, John Hall, ed. Editor
to Author: The Letters of Maxwell Perkins. New York:
|
| |
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1950. Reprints
two letters Perkins wrote Lardner in connection with How
to Write Short Stories. |
| Yates, Norris W. "The Isolated
Man of Ring Lardner." The American Humorist:
Conscience |
| |
of the Twentieth Century. Ames,
IA: Iowa State UP, 1964: 165-193. Describes Lardner's
common man types in their roles as aggressors and
victims. |
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