[Next Project] Short Fiction by Ring Lardner

[Jon Erdman]

I have been laying down some groundwork over the past several months towards the goal of taking on this large project, and I think I'm ready to do it now. I would like to do the Ring Lardner short fiction omnibus. When all said and done, it's going to be about a half-million words. Extremely large, but not the largest on the site.

Spreadsheet here, just so you don't have to track down the link:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J6ZnT3_1DHHTCWyzfSKkAbIHQqrEz4AoUI7dQdz7668

The scope of this would be everything on the spreadsheet that is currently public domain, excluding the plays and the stories that are already in the Jack Keefe Stories omnibus. Every single story from 1930 or earlier has scans linked in the spreadsheet, and they've all been transcribed (some are on Gutenberg, some FadedPage, some WikiSource, and a handful on other sites). The ones that lacked transcriptions have all been transcribed by myself in markdown and uploaded to a github repo (all of the ones with github links under the transcription column were done by me). Too many scan and transcription sources to link here, they're all in the spreadsheet. All the manual transcription work is already done, which should save a ton of time going forward.

Git repo: https://github.com/homestar92/ring-lardner_short-fiction

[Alex Cabal]

OK, the spreadsheet looks very good, great research!

I've created a project, Weijia will be managing with Emma reviewing.

This will be a lot of work - good luck!

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[Jon Erdman]

I do have one question about transcriptions - A transcription of the book "Own Your Own Home" (which contained four of the short stories that will be in this omnibus) was located on an old Lardner fansite which has long since gone offline, but I was able to get the transcriptions via the wayback machine.

I have copied them for safekeeping into the git repo where I'm keeping my manual transcriptions and credited their author, but I'm not sure what to link in my metadata. I can't imagine we have any precedent for linking to the wayback machine, and I wonder if the linter would even let me do it (since it would be an archive.org link that doesn't match the usual format). Should I put the wayback machine link in my metadata and add a lint-ignore entry if the linter doesn't like the nonstandard archive.org URL, or should I instead link to my copy on github? EIther way the creator of the transcription will be named in the metadata as a transcriber.

[Jon Erdman]

Also, on the topic of "Own Your Own Home" - a few more questions.

The book "Own Your Own Home" was comprised of the first four of seven stories that Lardner wrote about his character Fred Gross, which had all originally been published as individual stories in Redbook magazine. Three additional stories were published after the book compilation was released which follow the same character for a total of seven stories, which together are more than novel-length (56k words). When last I mentioned this topic, it was said that we wanted to just include those in the general Short Fiction omnibus, but the reason I'm double checking is that there's some precedent for those to be on their own (Jack Keefe Stories, and several character-specific Wodehouse omnibuses). Do we still want those as part of this omnibus, or do we want to separate them out? I'm assuming that including them here is still what we want to do, but I wanted to put the question out there.

Second question, assuming that we do include them in this release instead of their own, do I put them all in one xhtml file named "Fred Gross Stories"? Do I name it something else? Or does each of the seven get its own separate xhtml file and I just order them sequentially in the spine? I think putting them directly adjacent to each other in some form or another makes sense because readers will likely want to read all of them in sequence, but they are ultimately seven separate stories that form one longer arc so I wasn't sure how to best present them. I think having them in one xhtml file is cleaner for grouping purposes, but I don't know if a single novel-length file is going to cause compatibility issues with any readers.

Third question: The first story was originally published as "Own Your Own Home" when published on its own in RedBook magazine. When the first four stories were published as the book "Own Your Own Home", that first story was renamed as "It's the Only Life." While the latter title is the newer one, I would prefer to use the original title if that's OK, as someone who is looking for those stories most likely knows them under the name "Own Your Own Home" and naming the first story that way will help a lot with discoverability. Is this plan acceptable?

[Alex Cabal]

You could link to the Wayback Machine, that's fine. If there is a lint
error about that, just put it in the ignore file. Once this comes up for
review, I can look more closely and add an exception for the Wayback
Machine to lint.

> > https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/ <https://docs.google.com/
> spreadsheets/>

> > d/1J6ZnT3_1DHHTCWyzfSKkAbIHQqrEz4AoUI7dQdz7668
> >
> > The scope of this would be everything on the spreadsheet that is
> > currently public domain, excluding the plays and the stories that
> are
> > already in the Jack Keefe Stories omnibus. Every single story
> from 1930
> > or earlier has scans linked in the spreadsheet, and they've all been
> > transcribed (some are on Gutenberg, some FadedPage, some
> WikiSource, and
> > a handful on other sites). The ones that lacked transcriptions
> have all
> > been transcribed by myself in markdown and uploaded to a github repo
> > (all of the ones with github links under the transcription column
> were
> > done by me). Too many scan and transcription sources to link here,
> > they're all in the spreadsheet. All the manual transcription work is
> > already done, which should save a ton of time going forward.
> >
> > Git repo: https://github.com/homestar92/ring-lardner_short-

> fiction <https://github.com/homestar92/ring-lardner_short-fiction>

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[Alex Cabal]

Why did we decide to include Fred Gross in the omnibus initially, and
not as a separate ebook of Fred Gross stories?

> <http://archive.org> link that doesn't match the usual format).

> Should I put the wayback machine link in my metadata and add a lint-
> ignore entry if the linter doesn't like the nonstandard archive.org

> <http://archive.org> URL, or should I instead link to my copy on

> github? EIther way the creator of the transcription will be named in
> the metadata as a transcriber.
>
> On Saturday, January 3, 2026 at 1:46:07 PM UTC-5 Alex Cabal wrote:
>
> OK, the spreadsheet looks very good, great research!
>
> I've created a project, Weijia will be managing with Emma
> reviewing.
>
> This will be a lot of work - good luck!
>
> On 1/2/26 8:18 PM, Jon Erdman wrote:
> > I have been laying down some groundwork over the past several
> months
> > towards the goal of taking on this large project, and I think
> I'm ready
> > to do it now. I would like to do the Ring Lardner short
> fiction omnibus.
> > When all said and done, it's going to be about a half-million
> words.
> > Extremely large, but not the largest on the site.
> >
> > Spreadsheet here, just so you don't have to track down the link:

> > https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/ <https://
> docs.google.com/spreadsheets/>

> > d/1J6ZnT3_1DHHTCWyzfSKkAbIHQqrEz4AoUI7dQdz7668
> >
> > The scope of this would be everything on the spreadsheet that is
> > currently public domain, excluding the plays and the stories
> that are
> > already in the Jack Keefe Stories omnibus. Every single story
> from 1930
> > or earlier has scans linked in the spreadsheet, and they've
> all been
> > transcribed (some are on Gutenberg, some FadedPage, some
> WikiSource, and
> > a handful on other sites). The ones that lacked
> transcriptions have all
> > been transcribed by myself in markdown and uploaded to a
> github repo
> > (all of the ones with github links under the transcription
> column were
> > done by me). Too many scan and transcription sources to link
> here,
> > they're all in the spreadsheet. All the manual transcription
> work is
> > already done, which should save a ton of time going forward.
> >
> > Git repo: https://github.com/homestar92/ring-lardner_short-

> fiction <https://github.com/homestar92/ring-lardner_short-fiction>

> >
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[Jon Erdman]

When we discussed it initially, I had been asking about producing a standalone ebook of "The Big Town" which all told comes out to less than the 40k threshold (38k-ish). There was a sidebar conversation which led to my production of My Four Weeks in France and in the same thread I also mentioned the Fred Gross stories too and you had said to just put them in the short fiction omnibus.

It's likely that I confused the matter by asking too many questions that weren't immediately relevant, or that I misinterpreted your feedback at the time. Since it's a novel-length group of stories that all follow the same main character, I do think it's very much in the same vein as Jack Keefe or Jeeves or Ukridge or Mr. Mulliner and is perfectly justifiable as its own production. If you'd rather keep those separate to be consistent with what we've done elsewhere, that makes sense to me, and I can circle back to it when I finish this omnibus, or I could work on both concurrently. The Fred Gross stories are probably going to be the most difficult part of this omnibus since they're written in an extremely idiosyncratic style just like Jack Keefe so I certainly won't complain if I get an excuse to procrastinate on those a little bit.

If you'd prefer that all of the smaller omnibuses with narrower scope get done before the big one, I could also put this omnibus on pause and focus on Fred Gross if you'd prefer. It matters little to me, I intend to do all of it so we're really just deciding the order and organization of the work.

[Alex Cabal]

OK, if there are 7 stories and in total its over 50k words then you can
create a separate omnibus for Fred Gross

On 1/5/26 2:41 PM, Jon Erdman wrote:
> When we discussed it initially, I had been asking about producing a
> standalone ebook of "The Big Town" which all told comes out to less than
> the 40k threshold (38k-ish). There was a sidebar conversation which led

> to my production of /My Four Weeks in France/ and in the same thread I

> > <http://archive.org <http://archive.org>> link that doesn't match

> the usual format).
> > Should I put the wayback machine link in my metadata and add a lint-
> > ignore entry if the linter doesn't like the nonstandard
> archive.org <http://archive.org>

> > <http://archive.org <http://archive.org>> URL, or should I

> instead link to my copy on
> > github? EIther way the creator of the transcription will be named in
> > the metadata as a transcriber.
> >
> > On Saturday, January 3, 2026 at 1:46:07 PM UTC-5 Alex Cabal wrote:
> >
> > OK, the spreadsheet looks very good, great research!
> >
> > I've created a project, Weijia will be managing with Emma
> > reviewing.
> >
> > This will be a lot of work - good luck!
> >
> > On 1/2/26 8:18 PM, Jon Erdman wrote:
> > > I have been laying down some groundwork over the past several
> > months
> > > towards the goal of taking on this large project, and I think
> > I'm ready
> > > to do it now. I would like to do the Ring Lardner short
> > fiction omnibus.
> > > When all said and done, it's going to be about a half-million
> > words.
> > > Extremely large, but not the largest on the site.
> > >
> > > Spreadsheet here, just so you don't have to track down the link:
> > > https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/ <https://docs.google.com/

> spreadsheets/> <https://
> > docs.google.com/spreadsheets/ <http://docs.google.com/

> > msgid/ <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ <https://
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[Jon Erdman]

OK, I updated the omnibus name in the spreadsheet for those stories to indicate that they will get their own separate release. In the meantime, I will continue work on this omnibus and then I will circle back to those stories at a later time.

[Jon Erdman]

I have a question about whether a word should be considered as an onomatopoeia and italicized - the word is "Blooie!". Definitely an interjection, but not sure if it's really describing a "sound".

Here's an in-context sample from the text:

Well, the count goes to three and two on McInnes and Matty comes with a curve⁠—he’s got some curve too; but Jack happened to meet it and⁠—Blooie! Down the left foul line where he always hits!

[Alex Cabal]

Yes, you can italicize htat

> spreadsheets/> <http://docs.google.com/ <http://docs.google.com/>

> > <https://github.com/homestar92/ring-lardner_short- <https://
> github.com/homestar92/ring-lardner_short->>
> > > fiction <https://github.com/homestar92/ring-lardner_short-

> fiction <https://github.com/homestar92/ring-lardner_short-fiction>
> > <https://github.com/homestar92/ring-lardner_short-fiction
> <https://github.com/homestar92/ring-lardner_short-fiction>>>
> > > >
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