Have you heard of this man?
Here's a brief sample prose passage, written by me. Please read it in preparation for the poll/survey that follows.
There is no telling what the citizens of Broadway will do for a few potatoes. Some of them, such as the guy who is called Lucky Louie, will put the bite on a guy as soon as look at him. In fact, Lucky Louie is often more broke than somewhat, because of the money he loses on craps and horse races, and sometimes he is so broke that he even puts the bite on a doll, even though it is well known that dolls very rarely have potatoes to spare.
That is an attempt at imitating the style of a particular author. Until today, I am under the impression that this author, a 1930s newspaper scribe named Damon Runyon (whose last name is originally spelled "Runyan" until another newspaper scribe gets it wrong, and the new spelling sticks) is a very large author indeed, known to one and all as one of the best authors of short stories going. In his time, he is certainly very well known; his stories sell by the dozens to Cosmopolitan, Collier's, and the Saturday Evening Post for a dollar a word, the book collections of his stories sell millions of copies, he earns $2000 a week for working on Hollywood movies, and his syndicated newspaper column is read all over the country. Over time, Hollywood makes over 30 movies based on his work. But that is all in his heyday, in the 1930s. I am under the impression that he is best-known nowadays for his connection to the musical Guys and Dolls, and that he is about as highly regarded even today as other short-story scribes like O. Henry and Ring Lardner and Saki. I am also under the impression that Runyon's distinct prose style, in which there are no past-tense verbs and all the sentences sound slightly too formal and 1930s Broadway gangster slang figures prominently, is more than somewhat recognizable to all who read it.
This afternoon and evening it is brought to my attention that for some years now I am living in an alternate universe, while in most of the world Runyon is known very little if at all.
So I'm providing a survey to see how many of you are familiar with Runyon.
Heard of Runyon?
