_On the Ship Board, Jan. 15._ FRIEND AL: Well Al I suppose it is kind of foolish to be writeing you a letter now when they won't be no chance to mail it till we get across the old pond but still and all a man has got to do something to keep themself busy and I know you will be glad to hear all about our trip so I might as well write you a letter when ever I get a chance and I can mail them to you all at once when we get across the old pond and you will think I have wrote a book or something...

Author Biography

Ringgold Wilmer "Ring" Lardner (1885 - 1933) was an American sports columnist and short story writer best known for his satirical writings about sports, marriage and the theater. He was a contemporary of Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf and F. Scott Fitzgerald, all of whom professed strong admiration for Lardner's writing. Lardner started his writing career as a sports columnist, finding work with the newspaper South Bend Tribune as a teenager. Soon afterward, he accepted a job with the rival South Bend Times, the first of many professional switches. In 1907, he relocated to Chicago, where he gained a job with the Inter-Ocean, but within a year, he quit to work for the Chicago Examiner and then for the Tribune. Two years later, Lardner was in St. Louis, writing the humorous baseball column Pullman Pastimes for Taylor Spink and the Sporting News. Some of this work was the basis for his book You Know Me Al. Within three months, he was an employee of the Boston American.