Fun Facts Friday: Damon Runyon

Damon Runyon (4 October, 1880 – 10 December, 1946) was a short story writer and journalist best known for his short stories celebrating Broadway.

Fun Facts about Damon Runyon:

1. Alfred Damon Runyan (note the spelling) was born in Manhattan, KS. His father, Alfred Lee Runyan, was the local newspaper editor.
2. By 1886 the family was forced to sell the newspaper and relocated to Pueblo, CO where young Mr. Runyan grew up.
3. Damon Runyan attended school only until 4^th grade before beginning to work with his father in the newspaper. By age 15 he was working as a full-time reporter for his father’s newspaper the Daily Evening News specializing in human interest stories.
4. At age 17 he received his first byline but his name was misspelled as “Runyon” and it stuck with him.
5. When he was 18 years old, Damon Runyan joined the US Army to fight in the Spanish-American war. When he was discharged, he started working in the newspaper industry.
6. Even though he became a formidable writer, Mr. Runyon’s drinking became a problem and usually resulted in him looking for another job.
7. The 1920s are considered to be the golden age of sports. Sports reporters followed a team, and he was assigned to follow the baseball’s New York Giants. Instead of just writing a play-by-play of the game, he used sarcasm and wit which captured the atmosphere in the ballpark which spoke to both fans and readers.
8. By 1911, Damon Runyon found himself in New York City, replacing alcohol with coffee, and writing about sports for the New York American. He also dropped the “Alfred” from his byline.
9. Damon Runyon covered a lot more than sports, including Charles Lindbergh’s historic transatlantic flight (whose wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh was an accomplished woman herself), Pancho Villa’s raids, and other stories.
10. To this day, Pueblo, CO has a field, a lake, and a theater company named after him.

Zohar – Man of la Book
*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account, the money is usually spent on books

Sources:

Damon Runyon | Wikipedia

Damon Runyon: American author | Britannica

Behind the Byline: Damon Runyon, More Than a Sportswriter | Library of Congress Blogs