How To Write Short Stories - Ring W. Lardner

Another gem from the bookshelf as I was scanning this morning to find something to blog about is "How To Write Short Stories [With Samples] by Ring W. Lardner.

Originally published in 1924, the name Ring W. Lardner might "ring" a bell with you if you're a fan of the work of J.D.Salinger who references Lardner in "Catcher In the Rye" and "Franny and Zooey". He was also a friend of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Lardner and Fitzgerald both happened to live in Great Neck (New York) between October 1922 and April 1924. It was an improbable friendship aided by alcohol and that their wives got along well. Zelda who had "special standards" for people (I couldn't find any information on exactly what those standards were and what made them special according to an article in the New York Times), didn't always get along with Scott's friends, but she liked Ring well enough to allow him to conduct a mock courtship of her.

Of all the girls for whom I care,
And there are quite a number,
None can compare with Zelda Sayre,
Now wedded to a plumber.
So here's my Christmas wish for you:
I worship Leon Errol,
But the funniest girl I ever knew
Is Mrs. Scott Fitzgerald.

A poem from Ring to Zelda

Another poem from Ring to Zelda, click to enlarge.

Another story regarding their friendship involves dancing on a lawn in the hopes of gaining an audience with Joseph Conrad who was visiting America at the time. Conrad had them thrown off the property without seeing them.

Lardner's friendship proved to be a bigger inspiration to Fitzgerald than I originally thought. I thought the extent of the literary proof of their friendship in fiction anyway - since they wrote each other letters for many years - was that Lardner was a model for Abe North in "Tender Is the Night". Further research has shown that Lardner also appeared in "The Great Gatsby" as Owl Eyes who delivers Gatsby's obituary of "The poor son of a bitch", presumably as a thank you Lardner proofreading the book.

Later Fitzgerald would use Lardner's looks and wit. The man Fitzgerald referred to as "my alcoholic" would be reflected in Abe North further. North as the gifted musician who had ruined himself with drink and loss of belief in his work is exactly what Lardner had become. But Fitzgerald never abandoned his friend. After Lardner's death Fitzgerald wrote an elegy called "Ring" for The New Republic where he expressed with deep regret that:

"At no time did I feel that I had known him enough, or that anyone knew him - it was not the feeling that there was more stuff in him and that it should come out, it was rather a qualitative difference, it was rather as though, due to some inadequacy in oneself, one had not penetrated to something unsolved, new and unsaid. That is why one wishes that Ring had written down a larger proportion of what was in his mind and heart. It would have saved him longer for us, and that is itself would be something. But I would like to know what it was, and now I will go on wishing - what did Ring want, how did he want things to be, how did he think things were?

A great and good American is dead. Let us not obscure him by flowers but walk up and look at that fine medallion, all abraded by sorrows that perhaps we are not equipped to understand. Ring made no enemies, because he was kind, and to many millions he gave release and delight."

Lardner was also an inspiration to another writer. Ernest Hemingway. In high school Hemingway wrote for his school paper under the nom de plume Ring Lardner Jr. (the real Ring Lardner Jr. went on to win an Academy Award for "Woman of the Year" and for "M*A*S*H). Though he doesn't openly admit Lardner's influence there is some evidence to be found in Hemingway's letters that Lardner continued to influence Hemingway throughout the course of his life.

• "Burton Rascoe said In Our Time showed the influences of who the hell do you think?--Ring Lardner and Sherwood Anderson!" (To Ezra Pound, Burguete, Spain, 19 July 1924).

• "Some bright guy said In Our Time was a series of thumbnail sketches showing a great deal of talent but obviously under the influence of Ring Lardner. Yeah! That kind of stuff is fine. It doesn't bother." (To Edmund Wilson, Paris, 18 October 1924).

• "Your friend Ring is hampered by lack of intelligence, lack of any aesthetic appreciation, terrible repressions and bitterness. Any one of those is a terrible load for any writer to carry no matter how talented. He is, of course, 100 times as intelligent as most U.S. writers." (to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Paris, 20 April 1926).

• "Learned from Anderson but it didn't last long. Imitated Ring Lardner as a kid but didn't learn from him. Nothing to learn because he doesn't know anything. All he has is a good false ear and has been around." (To Arnold Gingrich, Key West, 3 April 1933) 

If you read the preface to Lardner's "How ToWrite Short Stories" it is full of sage advice and a writing style that helps me understand why it would have attracted the likes of Hemingway and Salinger - but I can also see how it might have influenced other writers like Bernard Malamud writer of "The Natural", perhaps one of the best novels ever written about the great sport of baseball.

But knowing the outcome of Lardner's life from Fitzgerald's point of view makes the knowledge that Lardner's work went on to inspire some of the greatest writers American literature has ever known bittersweet.

Lardner's preface is a mere five pages long, but full of helpful advice. He shows how a trivial line of dialogue can upset an entire plot and lead the author him or herself astray. My eyes stayed fixed to the line "it will be good practice" for quite some time. Practice. Writing takes practice.

And in case you're wondering about Lardner's references in Salinger's "The Catcher In the Rye", he's mentioned twice. Once as being an interest of Holden's brother and the other as being Holden's favourite writer after DB.

 Further reading:

• If you'd like to read the preface in full to Lardner's collection of short stories, you can find it here.