Damon Runyon: A to Izzard — Damon Runyon

Alfred Damon Runyan (re-christened Runyon through a printer's error early in his career) was an American journalist and short story writer. He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Prohibition era. He spun humorous and sentimental tales of gamblers, hustlers, actors, and gangsters, in his distinctive vernacular style known as Runyonese: a mixture of formal speech and colorful slang, almost always in present tense, and always devoid of contractions. * * * * Runyon's fictional world is perhaps best known today through the musical Guys and Dolls (based on The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown and Blood Pressure); the movie that made Shirley Temple a star, Little Miss Marker, and its remakes; and the movie Lady for a Day, remade as Pocketful of Miracles (based on Madame La Gimp).