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Allen and his wife move in with Jack and
Florrie, which makes things even worse. Jack and Florrie separate for a while, but eventually reconcile months later, and soon after have a child named Allen, whom Jack calls Little Al; Florrie assumes the child is named for her brother-in-law, but Jack writes that he is really named after his old friend Al in Bedford. Jack and Florrie's marriage continues to be tense even after Little Al's birth. Jack seems completely unaware that his parentage of Little Al (born eight months after his hastily-arranged marriage to Florrie) is potentially ambiguous.
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After a lay off of three years, Jack Keefe stories began to appear again. Stories 12 through 15 (all published in 1918, but set in 1917) detail Jack's entry into the army due to WWI, and his training while still in
America. Story 12 ("Call for Mr. Keefe") sets up some important background elements,
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Jack actually does fairly well as a major league pitcher; at one point his record is 10-6. (Typically, Jack assumes full credit for the ten wins, but blames his teammates for the six losses.) However, Jack's gullibility and almost complete self-absorption lead him in and out of a number of scrapes
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After brief, semi-disastrous engagements to two other women (Hazel and Violet), Jack eventually marries
Florrie. Florence enjoys living in style on Jack's salary in Chicago, and refuses to move back to Bedford during the off season, which causes tension between the two. For a while, to save money,
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strips, but, as with his "Busher" stories, he soon grew tired of it, and quit writing continuity in
January 1925. According to Richard Layman's introduction to the Harvest collection of strips, Lardner continued to receive credit on the strip until September 1925, "but it is clear he worked ahead
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Almost all the baseball characters with whom Jack interacts, be they team owners, managers, or players, were real-life people. Well-known baseball figures who appear in the novel include
Comiskey, Gleason (who constantly teases Jack about his weight and lack of baseball smarts), opposing players
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Stories 7 through 11 (all published in 1915) detail the round-the-world voyage (playing exhibition games) of Jack and his White Sox teammates, and their return home. The stories are set in the off season between 1914 and 1915; in real-life, the White Sox and Giants did a round the world tour in
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repeatedly dupes Keefe during contract negotiations, but still convinces Keefe he's getting a good deal. Other characters also routinely manipulate Keefe into doing what they want—amongst the major characters, only Al, who is always offstage, seems to be completely aboveboard and loyal to Jack.
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and its readers wanted all the Busher stories that
Lardner could deliver. More than he wanted to write, for he tired of the character and the requirements of the epistolary form ... After he stopped writing about Keefe, Lardner reluctantly provided continuity for a syndicated
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Much of the humour of the book is from Jack's boastful, oblivious nature, and his utter inability to recognize when he is being manipulated or cheated. In one of the book's many examples of this, White Sox owner
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before the end of the season, and the stories end before the World Series is played. The final Jack Keefe story, "The Busher Pulls a Mays", was published only nine days after the 1919 World Series concluded.
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is part of a longer sequence of stories about Jack Keefe (a.k.a. "The Busher"). Lardner published a total of 26 "busher" stories, featuring Keefe's fictional letters to Al, between 1914 and 1919 in the
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Goetsch, Douglas (Spring 2011). "Baseball's Loss of
Innocence: When the 1919 Black Sox Scandal shattered Ring Lardner's reverence for the game, the great sportswriter took a permanent walk".
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including the fact that Jack was drafted into the army against his will -- though he would later maintain he volunteered for duty. Despite this, only stories 13 through 15 were collected as
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and comical situations throughout the six linked stories in the novel. The book ends with Jack and his teammates about to embark on a trip to Japan for a baseball exhibition.
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Jack Keefe is a headstrong, gullible, cheap, naive, self-centred, egotistical and uneducated rube—but he has a strong pitching arm. He begins the book as a minor leaguer in
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and Dick Dorgan. The book consists of stories that were written as letters from a professional baseball player, Jack Keefe, to his friend Al
Blanchard in their hometown of
295:(1919), and detailed Corporal Jack Keefe's inglorious misadventures (including eventually being busted down to Private) as a WWI soldier in France.
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required just one printing in 1916 and was not reprinted until 1925 as part of the
Scribners program of launching Lardner as a serious writer."
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also seems to be honourable to Jack, though he is not above deceiving Jack when it is ultimately for Jack's own good.)
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had a weekly circulation of 2,000,000 copies when he wrote for it – he did not reach a large book readership.
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The final set of stories (22–26, all from 1919) detail Jack's return to baseball as a member of the
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According to
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291:(1918). Stories 16 through 21 (published in 1918-19, set in 1918) were collected as
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Lardner was a sportswriter who relocated to Chicago in 1907, where he covered the
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published nine of Lardner's baseball stories during 1914, six of which comprised
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Schweid, Barry (15 May 1979). "Ring Lardner's You Know Me Al (Book REview)".
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1913–14. These stories have never been reprinted or collected in any form.
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very little and after the first of February the ideas are someone else's."
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Ring Lardner's You Know Me Al: The Comic Strip Adventures of Jack Keefe
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Rogers, Michael (15 September 1995). "Book Reviews: Classic Returns".
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Ring Around The Bases: The Complete Baseball Stories of Ring Lardner
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Ring Around the Bases: the Complete Baseball Stories of Ring Lardner
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Stories 1 through 6 (all published in 1914) were collected as
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baseball teams for several city newspapers, most notably the
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Lardner scripted continuity for over 700 of the syndicated
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364:And Many a Stormy Wind Shall Blow (6 July 1918)
340:The Busher Abroad: Part 2 of 4 (10 April 1915)
337:The Busher Abroad: Part 1 of 4 (20 March 1915)
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497:Lardner, Ring, edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli.
391:The Courtship of T. Dorgan (6 September 1919)
346:The Busher Abroad: Part 4 of 4 (15 May 1915)
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343:The Busher Abroad: Part 3 of 4 (8 May 1915)
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501:, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1992.
334:The Busher Beats It Hence (7 November 1914)
328:A New Busher Breaks In (12 September 1914)
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394:The Busher Pulls a Mays (18 October 1919)
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349:The Busher's Welcome Home (5 June 1915)
355:Jack the Kaiser Killer (23 March 1918)
319:A Busher's Letters Home (7 March 1914)
370:Strategy and Tragedy (31 August 1918)
325:The Busher's Honeymoon (11 July 1914)
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382:The Busher Reenlists (19 April 1919)
358:Corporal Punishment (13 April 1918)
322:The Busher Comes Back (23 May 1914)
152:Strip showing the ball player, 1922
20:You Know Me Al: a busher's letters
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385:The Battle of Texas (24 May 1919)
367:Private Valentine (3 August 1918)
352:Call for Mr. Keefe (9 March 1918)
331:The Busher's Kid (3 October 1914)
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361:Purls before Swine (8 June 1918)
388:Along Came Ruth (26 July 1919)
379:Simple Simon (25 January 1919)
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601:George H. Doran Company books
596:Short stories by Ring Lardner
398:According to Bruccoli, "the
376:Sammy Boy (21 December 1918)
564:public domain audiobook at
525:. New York: Harvest, 1979.
373:Decorated (26 October 1918)
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16:1916 book by Ring Lardner
550:on the Internet Archive
243:George H. Doran Company
56:Epistolary novel, humor
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300:1919 Chicago White Sox
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250:Saturday Evening Post
222:Saturday Evening Post
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581:1916 American novels
260:The "Busher" Stories
158:Terre Haute, Indiana
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482:(2): 82–95.
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575:Categories
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201:Background
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245:in 1916.
211:White Sox
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61:Published
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48:Baseball
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
