Characters and Plots in the Fiction of Ring Lardner

This reference book is intended to acquaint and reacquaint readers with the brilliant short stories of Ring Lardner, who was the first and remains one of the best contemporary baseball writers - accurate, colloquial, and funny. His characters, both real and fictional, are handled here, as are the plots and details of some 35 short stories devoted almost exclusively to baseball. But Lardner was more versatile than many readers think, writing 92 non-baseball stories that are sometimes hard to categorize, focusing on athletes, writers, theatrical people, musicians, soldiers, embarrassed husbands, and puzzling wives. These lesser known stories are given equal attention in this encyclopedia, including 34 stories which are extremely rare and have never been collected in book form.The encyclopedia begins with an introductory essay on Lardner’s personality, his appearance, and the wide variety of his stories, followed by a chronology listing major events in the writer’s life. Hundreds of alphabetized entries follow, ranging from general summaries of Lardner’s stories to biographical overviews of his many fictional characters. When relevant, the latter category of entries provides a brief guide to the relationships between Lardner’s fictional characters and his real-life family, friends, professional acquaintances, and critics. To assist the most dedicated readers, the encyclopedia includes many end-of-entry bibliographical notes and a select bibliography.