Ring Lardner

Ringgold Wilmer Lardner, Sr.

• Born March 6, 1885 in Niles, MI USA
• Died September 25, 1933 in East Hampton, NY, USA

Biographical Information

A "You Know Me Al" comic strip from 1922. Continuation of the character from the book of the same name.

Beginning his career in South Bend, Indiana in 1905, Ring Lardner was a noted columnist and satirist. He worked for many papers in Chicago, IL and Boston, MA before being hired by a syndicate in 1919. He is the author of You Know Me Al (1916), one of the first baseball novels aimed at adults ever published.

At the end of his life, Lardner was plagued by ill health. He died of a heart attack and complications of tuberculosis at age 48. He was awarded the J.G. Taylor Spink Award posthumously in 1963, becoming the award's second winner after its namesake.

Further Reading

• James Hawking: "Stories of the White Sox: Farrell, Lardner and Algren", in Stuart Shea, ed.: North Side, South Side, All Around Town, The National Pastime, SABR, 2015. ISBN 978-1-93359987-8
• Ron Rapoport, ed.: Frank Chance's Diamond: The Baseball Journalism of Ring Lardner, Lyons Press, Lanham, MD. ISBN 9781493081004
• Jonathan Yardley: Ring: A biography of Ring Lardner, Random House, New York, NY, 1977. ISBN 978-0394498119