Broadway Boogie Woogie: Damon Runyon and the Making of New York City Culture

While analyzing Damon Runyon's work in terms of historical contexts, popular culture, and of the changing function of the media, Schwarz argues that Runyon was an indispensible figure in creating enduring images of New York City culture, which spurred an interest in the demi-monde and underworld exposed in The Godfather films and The Sopranos. In lively and exuberant chapters that include a panoramic view of New York City between the World Wars--and its colorful nightlife--Schwarz examines virtually every facet of Runyon's career from sports writer, daily columnist, trial reporter, and Hollywood figure to the author of the still widely read short stories that were the source of the Broadway hit Guys and Dolls. As part of his discussion of Runyon's art and artistry of Runyon's fiction, he skillfully examines the special language of the Broadway stories known as "Runyonese" and explains how "Runyonese" has become an adjective describing flamboyant behavior.

Author: D. Schwarz
Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
Published: 05/09/2003
Pages: 346
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.68lbs
Size: 8.26h x 5.50w x 0.90d
ISBN13: 9781403967312
ISBN10: 1403967318
BISAC Categories:
- Biography & Autobiography | Literary Figures
- Biography & Autobiography | Editors, Journalists, Publishers
- Literary Criticism | American | General

About the Author
DANIEL R. SCHWARZ is Professor of English and Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow at Cornell University, where he has taught since 1968. He has received Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences Russell award for distinguished teaching. He is the author of the widely read Imagining the Holocaust (1999). His most recent book is Rereading Conrad (2001). His prior books include Reconfiguring Modernism: Explorations in the Relationship Between Modern Art and Modern Literature (1997), Narrative and Representation in Wallace Stevens (1993), The Case for a Humanistic Poetics (1991), The Transformation of the English Novel, 1890-1930 (1989; revised 1995) Reading Joyce's 'Ulysses' (1987); The Humanistic Heritage: Critical Theories of the English Novel from James to Hillis Miller (1986); Conrad: The Later Fiction (1982); Conrad: 'Almayer's Folly' through 'Under Western Eyes' (1980); and Disraeli's Fiction (1979). He has edited The Dead (1994) and The Secret Sharer (1997) in the Bedford Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism Series, and is co-editor of Narrative and Culture (1994). He has directed nine NEH seminars, and has lectured widely in the United States and abroad.