Damon Runyon

Damon Runyon was born in Kansas in 1880… his father was a newspaper man, which profession attracted his son.  In 1898, he enlisted in the US army to fight in the Spanish American war.   He then became a sports writer and moved to New York in 1910.  His first name was Alfred, and he dropped this when he started writing in New York, and he was known by the racy and unusual Damon.

 He wrote about sports, for the Hearst Press, and this involvement in sports led him into gambling.   He was also a heavy drinker but quit because of his first wife’s dislike of his drinking habit.

He began to write short stories set in the underworld of New York, about “guys and dolls” who are involved in show business, gambling and gangsterism. Like O Henry, many of his stories have a twist…

His writing style usually involves only using the present tense, and never using contractions such as “can’t” or “wont”.