The John Lardner Reader

by Lardner, John

• ISBN13: 9780803230477
• ISBN10: 0803230478
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-10-01
• Publisher: Bison Books

Summary

This collection marks the return to print of John Lardner, one of America's press box giants, a classic stylist whose wry humour and tireless reporting helped elevate sports-writing to art. The brilliant W. C. Heinz called Lardner "the best of us." This book shows why. Lardner applied his singular touch not only to his era's icons---Joe Louis, Ted Williams, Satchel Paige---but to the scamps, eccentrics, hustlers, and con men in the shadow of sports. Whether in snappy columns or leisurely magazine pieces, Lardner held sport of every description up to the light, forever changing the way people wrote, read, and thought about their heroes, from superstars to scrappers. These forty-nine pieces represent sports-writing at the top of its game.

Author Biography

John Lardner (1913–60), the son of legendary humorist Ring Lardner, was a columnist for Newsweek; a frequent and much-honored contributor to the New Yorker, True, and Sport; and the author of It Beats Working; Strong Cigars and Lovely Women; and White Hopes and Other Tigers. John Schulian’s work has been included in Best American Sports Writing and Sports Illustrated’s Fifty Years of Great Writing. His Twilight of the Long-ball Gods: Dispatches from the Disappearing Heart of Baseball is available in a Bison Books edition. Dan Jenkins is the author of Jenkins at the Majors: 60 Years of the World’s Best Golf Writing, from Hogan to Tiger.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction	p. xv
In a Class by Themselves
Down Great Purple Valleys	p. 3
"The Haig": Rowdy Rebel of the Fairways	p. 19
Bats and Brawls
Babe Herman	p. 39
Good-by to All That	p. 49
Memoirs of Old Satch	p. 52
Most Blood for Your Money	p. 55
The Home of the Bean and the Kid	p. 58
The World's Richest Problem Child	p. 61
Hard-way Bill on the Mississippi	p. 64
They Walked by Night	p. 67
Baseball Eye	p. 77
Passing of an Unlicensed Hero	p. 80
The All-American Rookie	p. 83
Ball Fans and Other Primates	p. 86
Memoirs of a Mild Fanatic	p. 89
Razor Blades Amok	p. 92
The Space Revolution	p. 95
Cauliflower Alley
Morgan on Jaws	p. 101
Bag Hits Baer	p. 104
The Boy Bandit	p. 107
Upsy Downsy	p. 110
Death of a Simian and a Scholar	p. 113
The Case of the Chilly Giant	p. 116
Mr. Percentage	p. 119
Life with Eddie	p. 122
The Sweet and the Tough	p. 125
John Arthur Johnson	p. 128
Fun at the Scales	p. 131
Now Pitching for Bartlett's	p. 134
When in Doubt, Hang the Judge	p. 137
No Scar, No Memory	p. 140
Cautionary Tales
The Life and Loves of the Real McCoy	p. 145
Mysterious Montague	p. 161
Battling Siki	p. 169
Other Precincts
The Roller Derby	p. 189
Sleeper for '44	p. 197
The Old Postgraduate Try	p. 200
Rooney's Ride	p. 203
An Angel on Horseback	p. 206
Little Bill	p. 209
Strong Cigars and Lovely Women	p. 212
What Was That Again?	p. 215
Mr. Jacoby and the National Folly	p. 218
The Best of the Browsers	p. 221
Maybe in Memoriam	p. 224
The Life of T-ts Sh-r	p. 227
What Price Olympic Peace?	p. 230
Two for the Money
Titanic Thompson	p. 241
The Sack of Shelby	p. 258
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