Ring Lardner

Born in Niles, Michigan, in 1885, Ring Lardner began as a newspaper reporter and became one of the most admired sports columnists of his time. Writing for papers in cities including Chicago, he developed a crisp, conversational style that captured the rhythms of American speech with unusual accuracy and humor.

That same gift made his fiction stand out. He is especially remembered for the baseball stories collected in You Know Me Al, built around the comic, revealing letters of the boastful pitcher Jack Keefe. Lardner went on to write short stories, plays, songs, and sketches that often poked at vanity, marriage, show business, and the gap between how people see themselves and how they really sound.

Although he was hugely popular with general readers, he also earned the respect of major writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. He died in 1933, but his work still feels fresh for its ear for dialogue, its dry humor, and its clear-eyed view of American life.