A Treasury of Damon Runyon (Modern Library, No. 53)

By Damon Runyon

Book Overview

The hilarious antics and shenanigans of Broadway guys and dolls, out-of-towners and folks back home, and many others - affectionately reported by one of America's favorite writers. Dust jacket notes: "This thoroughly enjoyable collection is almost a biography of Damon Runyon, the boy who grew up in the West, rode the rods, knew what the inside of jails was like, wrote sports, reported abroad, and became Mr. Broadway. Here are represented the wide range of his experiences and of his writing - early Westerns and sketches of 'folks back home' with vivid titles like The Wooing of Nosey Gillespie and At Dead Mule Crossing; or tales, like The Informal Execution of Soupbone Pew, picked up in the hobo jungles. From his days as a newspaper reporter and syndicated columnist come accounts like The Main Event, sports verse like A Handy Guy Like Sande, and affectionate sketches of 'ordinary'people like those of Joe and Ethel Turp or My Old Man. And, finally, from Runyon's great days as a Broadway chronicler, we have Hot Horse Herbie, Nicely Nicely, Gentleman George and their fantasic cronies, speaking again in these pages the peculiar vernacular now immortalized as Runyonese."

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394600533
• ISBN13: 9780394600536
• Release Date: January 1958
• Publisher: Random House/The Modern Library
• Length: 428 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A Hard-To-Find Classic By A Much Underappreciated Writer

Like "Guys And Dolls," the Treasury is a collection of Runyon's Broadway short stories. It includes favorites like "Hold 'Em Yale" and "Jack 'O Hearts," as well as some more rare tales including an early Runyon piece where a prototype of Runyon's typically uninvolved narrator actually plays a crucial role in the storyline. The stories within and the excellent introduction (which sheds much more light on the author's life than any other Runyon collection) make this both a perfect introduction to Runyon's Broadway or an excellent addition to a collection. Damon Runyon is often forgetten when the time comes to list the great American writers of the 20th century. His unique style of prose is truly entertaining, and he evokes any emotion from the reader at will ("Little Miss Marker", for example will force you through the whole spectrum of emotion). A great collection of works from one of my favorite writers.