Книга: Louisa May Alcott, Alphonse Daudet, Jack London, Laura Esquivel, Damon Runyon «Food Stories»

Louisa May Alcott

Infobox Writer
name =Louisa May Alcott


imagesize =200px
caption = Louisa May Alcott
pseudonym = A. M. Barnard
birthdate = birth date|1832|11|29|mf=y
birthplace = Germantown, Philadelphia, PA
deathdate = death date and age|1888|3|6|1832|11|29|mf=y
deathplace = Boston, Massachusetts
occupation = Novelist
nationality = United States
period = Civil War
genre =
subject = Young Adult stories
movement =
notableworks = "Little Women"
influences = Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, Charles Dickens
influenced =
website = http://www.Louisamayalcott.org

Louisa May Alcott (November 29, 1832 – March 6, 1888) was an American novelist. She is best known for the novel "Little Women", published in 1868. This novel is loosely based on her childhood experiences with her three sisters.

Childhood and early works

Alcott was a daughter of noted Transcendentalist Amos Bronson Alcott and Abigail May Alcott. Louisa's father started the Temple School; her uncle, Samuel Joseph May, was a noted abolitionist. Though of New England parentage and residence, she was born in Germantown, which is currently part of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She had three sisters: one elder (Anna Alcott Pratt) and two younger (Elizabeth Sewall Alcott and Abigail May Alcott Nieriker). The family moved to Boston in 1834 or 1835, [, "New York Times", March 7, 1888. The obituary indicates that the family moved to Boston when Alcott was 2 years old, therefore in 1834-5. This is supported by the United States Census, 1850 which records that her younger sister, Elizabeth, was born in Massachusetts and was aged 15 (therefore born around 1835) at the time of the census.] where her father established an experimental school and joined the Transcendental Club with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.

During her childhood and early adulthood, she shared her family's poverty and Transcendentalist ideals. In 1840, after several setbacks with the school, her family moved to a cottage on two acres along the Sudbury River in Concord, Massachusetts. The Alcott family moved to the Utopian Fruitlands community for a brief interval in 1843-1844 and then, after its collapse, to rented rooms and finally to a house in Concord purchased with her mother's inheritance and help from Emerson. Alcott's early education had included lessons from the naturalist Henry David Thoreau but had chiefly been in the hands of her father. She also received some instruction from writers and educators such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Margaret Fuller, who were all family friends. She later described these early years in a newspaper sketch entitled "Transcendental Wild Oats," afterwards reprinted in the volume "Silver Pitchers" (1876), which relates the experiences of her family during their experiment in "plain living and high thinking" at Fruitlands.

As she grew older, she became both an abolitionist and a feminist. In 1847, the family housed a fugitive slave for one week. In 1848 Alcott read and admired the "Declaration of Sentiments" published by the Seneca Falls Convention on women's rights.

Due to the family's poverty, she began work at an early age as an occasional teacher, seamstress, governess, domestic helper, and writer — her first book was "Flower Fables" (1855), tales originally written for Ellen Emerson, daughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson. In 1860, Alcott began writing for the "Atlantic Monthly". She was nurse in the Union Hospital at Georgetown, D.C., for six weeks in 1862-1863. Her letters home, revised and published in the "Commonwealth" and collected as "Hospital Sketches" (1863, republished with additions in 1869), garnered her first critical recognition for her observations and humor. Her novel "Moods" (1864), based on her own experience, was also promising.

Lesser-known parts of her work are the passionate, fiery novels and stories she wrote, usually under the pseudonym A. M. Barnard. These works, such as "A Long Fatal Love Chase" and "Pauline's Passion and Punishment", were known in the Victorian Era as "potboilers" or "blood-and-thunder tales." Her character Jo in "Little Women" publishes several such stories but ultimately rejects them after being told that "good young girls should [not] see such things." Their protagonists are willful and relentless in their pursuit of their own aims, which often include revenge on those who have humiliated or thwarted them. These works achieved immediate commercial success and remain highly readable today.

Alcott also produced moralistic and wholesome stories for children, and, with the exceptions of the semi-autobiographical tale "Work" (1873), and the anonymous novelette "A Modern Mephistopheles" (1875), which attracted suspicion that it was written by Julian Hawthorne, she did not return to creating works for adults.

Literary success and later life

Louisa May Alcott's overwhelming success dated from the appearance of the first part of "Little Women: or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy", (1868) a semi-autobiographical account of her childhood years with her sisters in Concord, Massachusetts. Part two, or "Part Second", also known as "Good Wives," (1869) followed the March sisters into adulthood and their respective marriages. "Little Men" (1871) detailed Jo's life at the Plumfield School that she founded with her husband Professor Bhaer at the conclusion of Part Two of "Little Women." "Jo's Boys" (1886) completed the "March Family Saga."

Most of her later volumes, "An Old-Fashioned Girl" (1870), "Aunt Jo's Scrap Bag" (6 vols., 1871–1879), "Eight Cousins" and its sequel "Rose in Bloom" (1876), and others, followed in the line of "Little Women", remaining popular with her large and loyal public.

Although the Jo character in "Little Women" was based on Louisa May Alcott, she, unlike Jo, never married. Alcott explained her "spinsterhood" in an interview with Louise Chandler Moulton, "... because I have fallen in love with so many pretty girls and never once the least bit with any man." [Little Women Introduction, Penguin Classics, 1989. ISBN 0-14-039069-3] '

In 1879 her younger sister, May, died. Alcott took in May's daughter, Louisa May Nieriker ("Lulu"), who was two years old. The baby was named after her aunt, and was given the same nickname.

In her later life, Alcott became an advocate of women's suffrage and was the first woman to register to vote in Concord, Massachusetts in a school board election.

to address women’s issues in a modern and candid manner. Their works were, as one newspaper columnist of the period commented, "among the decided 'signs of the times'" (“Review 2 – No Title” from "The Radical", May 1868, see References below).

Despite worsening health, Alcott wrote through the rest of her life, finally succumbing to the after-effects of mercury poisoning contracted during her American Civil War service: she had received calomel treatments for the effects of typhoid. She died in Boston on March 6, 1888 at age 55, two days after visiting her father on his deathbed. Her last words were "Is it not meningitis?" [ [http://www.vu.union.edu/~mcguirem/lastwords.html vu.union.edu] - Famous Last Words]

The story of her life and career was initially told in Ednah D. Cheney's "Louisa May Alcott: Her Life, Letters and Journals" (Boston, 1889) and then in Madeleine B. Stern's seminal biography "Louisa May Alcott" (University of Oklahoma Press, 1950).

Selected works

* "The Inheritance" (1849, unpublished until 1997)
* "Flower Fables" (1854)
* "Hospital Sketches" (1863)
* "The Rose Family: A Fairy Tale" (1864)
* "Moods" (1865, revised 1882)
* "Morning-Glories and Other Stories" (1867)
* "The Mysterious Key and What It Opened" (1867)
* "Little Women" or "Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy" (1868)
* "Three Proverb Stories" (includes "Kitty's Class Day," "Aunt Kipp," and "Psyche's Art") (1868)
* "Part Second" of "Little Women", also known as "Good Wives" (1869)
* "An Old Fashioned Girl" (1870)
* "Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag" (1872-1882)
* "Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys" (1871)
* "" (1872)
* "Eight Cousins" or "The Aunt-Hill" (1875)
* "Beginning Again, Being a Continuation of Work" (1875)
* "Silver Pitchers, and Independence: A Centennial Love Story," (1876)
* "Rose in Bloom": A Sequel to Eight Cousins (1876)
* "Under the Lilacs" (1878)
* "Jack and Jill: A Village Story" (1880)
* "Jo's Boys and How They Turned Out: A Sequel to "Little Men" (1886)
* "Lulu's Library" (1886-1889)
* "A Garland for Girls" (1888)
* "Comic Tragedies" (1893) As A.M.Barnard
* "Behind a Mask, or a Woman's Power" (1866)
* "The Abbot's Ghost, or Maurice Treherne's Temptation" (1867)
* "A Long Fatal Love Chase" (1866 - first published 1995)

First published anonymously
* "A Modern Mephistopheles" (1877)

Published as

* "Little Women, Little Men, Jo's Boys" (Elaine Showalter, ed.) (Library of America, 2005) ISBN 978-1-93108273-0.

See also

* Orchard House, where Alcott lived when writing "Little Women"
* Walpole, New Hampshire, where the abundant lilacs in the town inspired Alcott to write the book "Under the Lilacs"

Footnotes

References

* Shealy, Daniel, Editor. "Alcott in Her Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of Her Life, Drawn from Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs by Family, Friends and Associates." University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, Iowa, 2005. ISBN 0-87745-938-X.
*“Review 2 – No Title” from The Radical (1865 - 1872). May 1868. American Periodical Series 1740 - 1900. [http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?RQT=305&querySyntax=PQ&searchInterface=1&moreOptState=OPEN&TS=1170259771&h_pubtitle=&h_pmid=&clientId=2281&JSEnabled=1&SQ=Anne+Moncure+Crane&DBId=5197&onDate=&beforeDate=&fromDate=&toDate=&pubtitle=&author=&AT=any&STYPE=all&FT=1&sortby=CHRON&searchButtonImage.x=0&searchButtonImage.y=0] (link is password only) (29 January 2007).

Further reading

* cite book
last = Saxton
first = Martha
title = Louisa May: A Modern Biography of Louisa May Alcott
year = 1977
publisher = Houghton Mifflin
id = ISBN 0-395-25720-4
* cite book
last = MacDonald
first = Ruth K.
title = Louisa May Alcott
year = 1983
publisher = Twayne
id = ISBN 0-8057-7397-5
* cite book
last = Myerson
first = Joel
coauthors = Daniel Shealy, Madeleine B. Stern
title = The Selected Letters of Louisa May Alcott
year = 1987
publisher = Little, Brown
id = ISBN 0-316-59361-3
* cite book
last = Myerson
first = Joel
coauthors = Daniel Shealy, Madeleine B. Stern
title = The Journals of Louisa May Alcott
year = 1989
publisher = Little, Brown
id = ISBN 0-316-59362-1

External links

* [http://womenshistory.about.com/od/alcottlouisamay/a/lma_transcend.htm Full text of "Transcendental Wild Oats"]
* [http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=289 Annotation of Hospital Sketches] at NYU Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database, with link to the e-text.
*
* [http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3ALouisa%20May%20Alcott%20-contributor%3Agutenberg%20AND%20mediatype%3Atexts Works by Louisa May Alcott] at Internet Archive
* [http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?author=Alcott%2C+Louisa&amode=start Works by Louisa May Alcott] at Online Books Page
* [http://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty-a-m.html#alcott Works by Louisa May Alcott] at [http://gutenberg.net.au Project Gutenberg Australia]

Sources
*
* [http://www.womenwriters.net/domesticgoddess/alcottguide.htm Bibliography] (including primary works and information on secondary literature - critical essays, theses and dissertations) Other
* [http://www.personal.psu.edu/shp2/LouisaMayAlcottSociety/LMAS_welcome.htm The Louisa May Alcott Society] A scholarly organization devoted to her life and works.
* [http://www.alcottfilm.com/ Louisa May Alcott, the real woman who wrote Little Women] . A web site about Louisa May Alcott which will be the foundation for a documentary film, published media and educational programs.
* [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1129.html Obituary, NY Times, March 7, 1888, "Louisa M. Alcott Dead"]
* [http://ww3.startribune.com/blogs/oldnews/archives/175 Minneapolis Tribune, March 7, 1888, "OBITUARY: Miss Louisa M. Alcott"]
* [http://www.empirezine.com/spotlight/alcott/alcott.htm Biographical information]

Persondata
NAME=Alcott, Louisa May
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Barnard, A. M. (literary pseudonym)
SHORT DESCRIPTION=writer
DATE OF BIRTH=birth date|1832|11|29|mf=y
PLACE OF BIRTH=Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH=death date|1888|3|6|mf=y
PLACE OF DEATH=Boston, Massachusetts

Источник: Louisa May Alcott

Alphonse Daudet

Источник: Alphonse Daudet

Jack London

Источник: Jack London

Laura Esquivel

Infobox Writer


imagesize = 150px
name = Laura Esquivel
caption =
pseudonym =
birthdate = birth date and age|1950|9|30
birthplace = Mexico
deathdate =
deathplace =
occupation = Novelist, screenwriter
nationality = Mexican
period =
genre = Magical realism
subject =
movement =
debut_works = "Como agua para chocolate" ("Like Water for Chocolate") (1989)
influences =
influenced =


website =
footnotes =

Laura Esquivel (born September 30, 1950) is a Mexican author making a noted contribution to Latin-American literature. She was born the third of four children of Julio César Esquivel, a telegraph operator, and Josefa Valdés.

Literary career

In her first novel "Como agua para chocolate" ("Like Water for Chocolate"), released in 1989, Esquivel uses magical realism to combine the ordinary and the supernatural, similar to Isabel Allende. The novel, taking place in nineteenth century Mexico, shows the importance of the kitchen in Esquivel's life. Esquivel believes that the kitchen is the most important part of the house and characterizes it as a source of knowledge and understanding that brings pleasure. The "title refers to a colloquial phrase used by the Spanish that means an extremity of feeling. It refers to a boiling point in terms of anger, passion and sexuality." The idea for the book came to Esquivel "while she was cooking the recipes of her mother and grandmother." Reportedly, "Esquivel used an episode from her own family to write her book. She had a great-aunt named Tita, who was forbidden to wed. Tita never did anything but care for her own mother. Soon after her mother died, so did Tita." "The book has been a tremendous international success: The No. 1 best-selling book in Mexico for three years, it's also been translated into 23 languages." ["Kitchen is home's heart for 'Chocolate' author Esquivel." Deirdre Donahue. USA TODAY LIFE; Pg. 8D. November 18, 1993.]

"Like Water for Chocolate" was developed into a film, which was released in 1993 concurrently with the book's English translation. In the United States, "Like Water for Chocolate" became one of the largest grossing foreign films ever released in the US. Esquivel earned the Mexican Academy of Motion Pictures award; she received eleven in all, from Ariel Awards.Fact|date=May 2007

Esquivel's second novel, "The Law of Love" (1996) takes place in the twenty-third century Mexico City and combines romance and science fiction. Reportedly, "the theme of romantic love, particularly love thwarted, appears repeatedly throughout her novels, as does the setting in Mexico."http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=185854 Biography of Laura Esquivel.]

Her "Between the Fires" (2000) featured essays on life, love, and food. Her most recent novel, "Malinche" (2006), "explores the life of a near mythic figure in Mexican history-the woman who served as Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortez's interpreter and mistress" as he fought to overthrow the Aztecs. Reportedly, although "since the 15th century, Mexican history and folklore have interpreted her actions as traitorous to her people, in Esquivel's book, we learn of Malinche's rich cultural heritage." ["Best of the literary crop." Christy Karras. The Salt Lake Tribune. FEATURES; Books; Entertainment; Sunday Arts. December 9, 2006.] Esquivel characterized La Malinche as a strong woman - an ambassador and a genius.Fact|date=January 2008 The novel includes an Aztec codex (by Jordi Castells) which acts as Malinche's own diary.

Personal

Esquivel was once married to director Alfonso Arau."COOKING UP PASSION THE WOMAN BEHIND LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE VIEWS THE KITCHEN;AS THE CENTER OF SEDUCTION FOR HER STIRRING TALE OF LOVE ON THE SLY." CANDICE RUSSELL. Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL).FEATURES ARTS & LEISURE, Pg. 1D. April 25, 1993.] She currently lives in Guatama Bay, Mexico.

Bibliography

*"Como agua para chocolate" (1989) (English: "Like Water for Chocolate")
*"La ley del amor" (1995) (English: "The Law of Love")
*"Íntimas suculencias" (1998)
*"Estrellita marinera" (1999)
*"El libro de las emociones" (2000)
*"Tan veloz como el deseo" (2001) (English: "Swift as Desire")
*"Malinche" (2006)

References

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0261294/ Esquivel's IMDb page]
* [http://www.bookrags.com/biography/laura-esquivel-aya/ Biography (bookrags.com)]
* [http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=185854 Short bio (biography.com)]
* [http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/e/laura-esquivel/ Fantasticfiction.co.uk]
* [http://www.dailycelebrations.com/071500.htm Bio at Dailycelebrations.com]

Источник: Laura Esquivel

Damon Runyon

Damon Runyon
Born	October 4, 1880(1880-10-04) Manhattan, Kansas
Died	December 10, 1946(1946-12-10) (aged 66) New York City
Occupation	Writer
Nationality	American

Alfred Damon Runyon (October 4, 1880^[1] – December 10, 1946) was a newspaperman and writer.^[2]

He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Prohibition era. To New Yorkers of his generation, a "Damon Runyon character" evoked a distinctive social type from the Brooklyn or Midtown demi-monde. The adjective "Runyonesque" refers to this type of character as well as to the type of situations and dialog that Runyon depicted. He spun humorous tales of gamblers, hustlers, actors, and gangsters, few of whom go by "square" names, preferring instead colorful monikers such as "Nathan Detroit," "Benny Southstreet," "Big Jule," "Harry the Horse," "Good Time Charley," "Dave the Dude," or "The Seldom Seen Kid." Runyon wrote these stories in a distinctive vernacular style: a mixture of formal speech and colorful slang, almost always in present tense, and always devoid of contractions. A passage from "Tobias the Terrible", collected in More than Somewhat (1937) illustrates Runyon's memorable prose:

If I have all the tears that are shed on Broadway by guys in love, I will have enough salt water to start an opposition ocean to the Atlantic and Pacific, with enough left over to run the Great Salt Lake out of business. But I wish to say I never shed any of these tears personally, because I am never in love, and furthermore, barring a bad break, I never expect to be in love, for the way I look at it love is strictly the old phedinkus, and I tell the little guy as much.

The musical Guys and Dolls was based on two Runyon stories, "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" and "Blood Pressure".^[3] The musical also takes characters and story elements from a few other Runyon stories, most notably "Pick The Winner." The film Little Miss Marker (and its remake, Sorrowful Jones) grew from his short story of the same name. The original series Star Trek episode 49 "A Piece Of The Action" is also Runyonese influenced, both in costume and dialog.

Runyon was also a newspaperman. He wrote the lead article for UP on Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Presidential inauguration in 1933.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 New York years 1.2 Death and Memorial Research Center 2 Media 2.1 Bibliography 2.2 Films 2.3 Radio 2.4 Television 3 Literary style 4 Legacy 5 Gallery 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External links

Biography

Damon Runyon was born as Alfred Damon Runyan to a family of newspapermen in Manhattan, Kansas. His grandfather was a newspaper printer from New Jersey who had relocated to Manhattan, Kansas in 1855, and his father was editor of his own newspaper in the town. In 1882 Runyon's father was forced to sell his newspaper, and the family moved westward. The family eventually settled in Pueblo, Colorado, in 1887, where Runyon spent the rest of his youth. He began to work in the newspaper trade under his father in Pueblo. In present-day Pueblo, Runyon Field, the Damon Runyon Repertory Theater Company and Runyon Lake are now named in his honor. He worked for various newspapers in the Rocky Mountain area; at one of those, the spelling of his last name was changed from "Runyan" to "Runyon," a change he let stand.

In 1898 Runyon enlisted in the U.S. Army to fight in the Spanish-American War. While in the service, he was assigned to write for the Manila Freedom and Soldier's Letter.

New York years

After a notable failure in trying to organize a Colorado minor baseball league, Runyon moved to New York City in 1910. In his first New York byline, the American editor dropped the "Alfred," and the name "Damon Runyon" appeared for the first time. For the next ten years he covered the New York Giants and professional boxing for the New York American.

He was the Hearst newspapers' baseball columnist for many years, beginning in 1911, and his knack for spotting the eccentric and the unusual, on the field or in the stands, is credited with revolutionizing the way baseball was covered. Perhaps as confirmation, Runyon was inducted into the writers' wing (the J. G. Taylor Spink Award) of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967. He is also a member of the International Boxing Hall Of Fame and is known for dubbing heavyweight champion James J. Braddock, the "Cinderella Man". Runyon frequently contributed sports poems to the American on boxing and baseball themes, and also wrote numerous short stories and essays.

One year, while covering spring training in Texas, he met Pancho Villa in a bar in Texas and later accompanied the unsuccessful American expedition into Mexico searching for Villa. It was while he was in Mexico that he met the young girl that he eventually married.

Gambling, particularly on craps or horse races, was a common theme of Runyon's works, and he was a notorious gambler himself. One of his paraphrases from a well-known line in Ecclesiastes ran: "The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that's how the smart money bets."

A heavy drinker as a young man, he seems to have quit the bottle soon after arriving in New York, after his drinking nearly cost him the courtship of the woman who became his first wife, Ellen Egan. He remained a heavy smoker.

His best friend was mobster accountant Otto Berman, and he incorporated Berman into several of his stories under the alias "Regret, the horse player." When Berman was killed in a hit on Berman's boss, Dutch Schultz, Runyon quickly assumed the role of damage control for his deceased friend, correcting erroneous press releases (including one that stated Berman was one of Schultz's gunmen, to which Runyon replied, "Otto would have been as effective a bodyguard as a two-year-old.")

The family plot of Damon Runyon in Woodlawn Cemetery

Runyon's marriage to Ellen Egan produced two children (Mary and Damon, Jr.), and broke up in 1928 over rumors that Runyon had become infatuated with a Mexican girl he had first met while covering the Pancho Villa raids in 1916 and discovered once again in New York, when she called the American seeking him out. Runyon had promised her in Mexico that, if she would complete the education he paid for her, he would find her a dancing job in New York. Her name was Patrice Amati del Grande, and she became his companion after he separated from his wife. After Ellen Runyon died of the effects of her own drinking problems, Runyon and Patrice married; that marriage ended in 1946 when Patrice left Runyon for a younger man.

Death and Memorial Research Center

Runyon died in New York City from throat cancer in late 1946, at age 66. His body was cremated, and his ashes were scattered from an airplane over Broadway in Manhattan by Captain Eddie Rickenbacker on December 18, 1946. The family plot of Damon Runyon is located at Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, NY. After Runyon's death, his friend and fellow journalist, Walter Winchell, went on his radio program and appealed for contributions to help fight cancer, eventually establishing the “Damon Runyon Cancer Memorial Fund” to support scientific research into causes of, and prevention of cancer.

Media

Bibliography

The Tents of Trouble (Poems; 1911) Rhymes of the Firing Line (1912) Guys and Dolls (1932) Damon Runyon's Blue Plate Special (1934) Money From Home (1935) More Than Somewhat (1937) Furthermore (1938) Take It Easy (1938) My Wife Ethel (1939) My Old Man (1939) The Best of Runyon (1940) A Slight Case of Murder (with Howard Lindsay, 1940) Damon Runyon Favorites (1942) Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker (with W. Kiernan, 1942) Runyon à la Carte (1944)

The Damon Runyon Omnibus (1944) Short Takes (1946) In Our Town (1946) The Three Wise Guys and Other Stories (1946) Trials and Other Tribulations (1947) Poems for Men (1947) Runyon First and Last (1949) Runyon on Broadway (1950) More Guys and Dolls (1950) The Turps (1951) Damon Runyon from First to Last (1954) A Treasury of Damon Runyon (1958) The Bloodhounds of Broadway and Other Stories (1985) Romance in the Roaring Forties and other stories (1986) Guys, Dolls, and Curveballs: Damon Runyon on Baseball (2005; Jim Reisler, editor) A Dangerous Guy Indeed (Unknown)

Films

Numerous Damon Runyon stories were adapted for the stage and the screen. Some of the best of these include:

• Lady for a Day (1933)—Adapted by Robert Riskin, who suggested the name change from Runyon's title "Madame La Gimp," the film garnered Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Director (Frank Capra), Best Actress (May Robson), and Best Adaptation for the Screen (Riskin). It was remade as Pocketful of Miracles in 1961, with Bette Davis in the Apple Annie role; Frank Sinatra recorded the upbeat title song (his rendition is not used in the film). The film received Oscar nominations for composers Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen and for co-star Peter Falk (Best Supporting Actor). In 1989, Jackie Chan adapted the story yet again for the Hong Kong action film Miracles, adding several of his trademark stunt sequences.
• Little Miss Marker (1934)—The film that made Shirley Temple a star, launched her career as perhaps America's most beloved child film star, and pushed her past Greta Garbo as the nation's biggest film draw of the year. Subsequent remakes include Sorrowful Jones (1949; Bob Hope, Lucille Ball), 40 Pounds of Trouble (1962; Tony Curtis), and Little Miss Marker (1980; Walter Matthau, Julie Andrews, Bob Newhart, Tony Curtis).
• The Lemon Drop Kid (1934, Lee Tracy) — remade in 1951 with Bob Hope (and I Love Lucy co-star William Frawley as a racetrack tout), it introduced the Christmas song "Silver Bells".
• Princess O'Hara (1935; Jean Parker) — remade in 1943 as It Ain't Hay with Abbott and Costello and Patsy O'Connor
• Professional Soldier (1935) — an adventure story starring Victor McLaglen and Freddie Bartholomew
• A Slight Case of Murder (1938) with Edward G. Robinson — remade in 1953 as Stop, You're Killing Me with Broderick Crawford and Claire Trevor
• The Big Street (1942) — Henry Fonda, Lucille Ball (adapted from Runyon's story "Little Pinks")
• Butch Minds the Baby (1942) — Broderick Crawford, Shemp Howard
• Money from Home (1953) —Martin and Lewis
• Guys and Dolls (1955) —Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra

Radio

Broadcast from January to December 1949, with reruns well into the early 1950s, The Damon Runyon Theatre dramatized 52 of Runyon's short stories for radio. Produced by Mayfair Productions for syndication to local radio stations, John Brown played "Broadway," who served as host and narrator.

Episodes can be heard at Archive.org's Old Time Radio Database here.

Television

Damon Runyon Theatre aired on CBS-TV from 1955-56.

Literary style

Runyon almost totally avoids the past tense (it is thought to be used once, in the short story "The Lily of St Pierre", and once in "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" ^[4]), and makes little use of the future tense, using the present for both. He also avoided the conditional, using instead the future indicative in situations that would normally require conditional. An example: "Now most any doll on Broadway will be very glad indeed to have Handsome Jack Madigan give her a tumble ..." (Guys and Dolls, "Social error"). There is an homage to Runyon that makes use of this peculiarity ("Chronic Offender" by Spider Robinson) which involves a time machine.

He uses many slang terms (which go unexplained in his stories), such as:

• pineapple = pineapple grenade
• roscoe/john roscoe/the old equalizer/that thing = gun
• shiv = knife
• noggin = head
• snoot = nose

There are many recurring composite phrases such as:

• ever-loving wife (occasionally "ever-loving doll")
• more than somewhat (or "no little, and quite some"); this phrase was so typical that is was used as the title of one of his short story collections
• loathe and despise
• one and all

Runyon's stories also employ occasional rhyming slang, similar to the cockney variety but native to New York (e.g.: "Miss Missouri Martin makes the following crack one night to her: 'Well, I do not see any Simple Simon on your lean and linger.' This is Miss Missouri Martin's way of saying she sees no diamond on Miss Billy Perry’s finger." (from "Romance in the Roaring Forties").

The comic effect of his style results partly from the juxtaposition of broad slang with mock-pomposity. Women, when not "dolls", "Judies", "pancakes", "tomatoes", "broads" or what have you, may be "characters of a female nature", for example. He typically avoided contractions like "don't" in the example above, which also contributes significantly to the humorously pompous effect. In one sequence, a gangster tells another character to do as he's told, or else "find another world in which to live."

Runyon's short stories are told in the first person by a protagonist who is never named, and whose role is unclear; he knows many gangsters and does not appear to have a job, but he does not admit to any criminal involvement, and seems to be largely a bystander.

Legacy

• The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, established in his honor, was set up to fund promising scientists in the field of cancer research. The organization sponsors a 5K run at Yankee Stadium.
• Every year, the Denver Press Club hands out the Damon Runyon Award to a notable journalist. Past winners include Jimmy Breslin, Mike Royko, George Will and Bob Costas.^[5]
• Damon Runyon Elementary school in Littleton, Colorado is named after him.
• History's first telethon was hosted by Milton Berle in 1949 to raise funds for the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.
• The house in Manhattan, Kansas where Runyon was born is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
• Named in his honor, the Damon Runyon Stakes is a Thoroughbred horse race run every December at Aqueduct Race Track. Runyon loved horse racing and ran a small stable of his own.
• In the mid-1930s, Runyon persuaded promoter Leo Seltzer to formally change his Roller Derby spectacle from a marathon roller skating race into a full-contact team sport,^[6] an innovation which was eventually revived in a DIY spirit seven decades later.
• One block of West 45th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues) in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen is named Runyon's Way.
• In 2008, The Library of America selected Runyon’s story “The Eternal Blonde” for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American Crime Writing.
• Runyon and his cat Sheba appear as characters in Diane Duane's novel The Big Meow, completed in 2011.

Gallery

• Runyon's World War I draft card

Biography portal

References

1. ^ "Birth Announcement". The (Manhattan, Kansas) Nationalist. October 7, 1880. 
2. ^ Philip Pullman, Nick Hardcastle (1998). Detective stories. Kingfisher Publications. ISBN 0753456362. http://books.google.com/books?visbn=0753456362&id=6OsgjZkA_pEC&pg=PA96&lpg=PA96&dq=Damon+Runyon&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html&sig=VQFfSVfRpzXaNP9TIdkwsll79ak. 
3. ^ "Damon Runyon". Authors. The eBooks-Library. http://www.ebooks-library.com/author.cfm/AuthorID/900. Retrieved 2008-07-20. 
4. ^ Guys and Dolls, Penguin Books, 1956, page 13
5. ^ John C. Ensslin. "Denver Press Club's Damon Runyon Award for contributions in the field of journalism". Denver Press Club. http://www.denverpressclub.org/damon-runyon-award. Retrieved 2010-06-22. 
6. ^ Turczyn, Coury (1999-01-28). "Blood on the Tracks". Metro Pulse. http://www.popcultmag.com/obsessions/fadsandphenoms/rollerderby/derby2.html. Retrieved 2008-02-11.  (link points to the archived article in the Spring 2000 edition of the author's own PopCult Magazine Web site) “The faster skaters would break out and try and get laps so they would get ahead in the race, and some of the slower skaters started to band together to try and hold them back,” says Seltzer. “And at first, they didn’t want to let them do that–but then the people liked it so much, they kind of allowed blocking. Then they came down to Miami–I think it was 1936, early ’37–and Damon Runyon, a very famous sports writer, saw it and he sat down with my father and hammered out the rules, almost exactly as they are today.”

Further reading

• Mosedale, John (1981). The Men Who Invented Broadway: Damon Runyon, Walter Winchell & Their World. New York: Richard Marek Publishers

External links

• Damon Runyon at the Internet Movie Database Retrieved on 2009-5-16
• Damon Runyon at the Internet Broadway Database Retrieved on 2009-5-16
• National Baseball Hall of Fame - 1967 J. G. Taylor Spink Award Winner
• Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation and Broadway Theater Service
• Text of Story "The Informal Execution of Soupbone Pew" at http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0606431.txt
• Damon Runyon in 2011

v · d · eBaseball Hall of Fame Class of 1968 BBWAA Vote Joe Medwick (84.81%) Veterans Committee Kiki Cuyler • Goose Goslin J. G. Taylor Spink Award Damon Runyon

v · d · eJ. G. Taylor Spink Award recipients Addie • Broeg • Broun • Brown • Burick • Carmichael • Chass • Cobbledick • Collett • Collier • Conlin • Daniel • Drebinger • Durso • Dryden • Falls • Feeney • Fullerton • Gammons • Graham • Holmes • Holtzman • Hummel • Hunter • Isaminger • Kaese • Kelly • Kieran • Koppett • Lacy • Lang • Lardner • Lawson • Lebovitz • Lewis • Lieb • Madden • McCoy • McGuff • Meany • Mercer • Munzel • Murnane • Murray • Newhan • Peters • Povich • Reicher • Rice • Richman • Ringolsby • Runyon • Salsinger • Spink • Saidt • K. Smith • R. Smith • W. Smith • Stevens • Stockton • Whiteside • Young

Persondata
Name	Runyon, Damon
Alternative names	Alfred Damon Runyon (real name)
Short description	Writer
Date of birth	October 4, 1880
Place of birth	Manhattan, Kansas
Date of death	December 10, 1946
Place of death	New York, New York

Источник: Damon Runyon