You Know Me Al

By Lardner, Ring

Book Id: WPLBN0002954088
Format Type:
File Size: 147.44 MB
Reproduction Date: 2009

Title:	You Know Me Al
Author:	Lardner, Ring
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Fiction, Epistolary fiction
Collections:	Audio Books Collection, You Know Me Al
Historic Publication Date:	1916
Publisher:	LibriVox Audio Books


Citation APA MLA Chicago Lardner, B. R. (1916). You Know Me Al. Retrieved from http://gutenberg.us/

Description
Big, fat, dumb, lazy, vain, headstrong and cheap, Jack Keefe is a journeyman pitcher with the Chicago White Sox in the rowdy days of the Deadball Era, circa 1915, ruled by the likes of Ty Cobb and John McGraw. In You Know Me Al, we follow Jack Keefe's life on-field and off, via the letters Jack writes to his old chum Al in his home town of Bedford, Indiana. Ring Lardner was a Chicago sportswriter who covered the White Sox, and he brought an insider's knowledge of clubhouse life together with his biting wit and gift for the vernacular to create a comic gem in You Know Me Al. The six Jack Keefe stories that compose this volume were originally written as individual magazine articles, but the epistolary format made it easy to collect them into a single running narrative covering Jack's first two years in the Big Leagues. It isn't necessary to know baseball history to enjoy the book, which is as much about Jack's troubles with girlfriends, wives and babies as it is about the Chicago White Sox. For the baseball fan, however, this glimpse into a bygone era adds an extra layer of fascination. In any case, Lardner's portrait of the professional ballplayer as a dumb, drunken narcissist is as funny today as the day it was written. (Summary by Rick Rodstrom)

Summary
Electronic recorded live performance of a reading

Excerpt
Epistolary fiction