I'd Hate Myself in the Morning: A Memoir - Hardcover

Ring Lardner Jr., the third son of a famous American writer, attended Andover and Princeton and in 1935, went to Hollywood to become a scriptwriter. In 1942 he cowrote, with Michael Kanin, the comedy "Woman of the Year," which won the Academy Award for best original screenplay. Because of his refusal to reveal his beliefs and associations in 1947 before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Lardner was blacklisted in Hollywood and three years later, sentenced to a year in prison. During that time he began research on his novel THE ECSTACY OF OWEN MUIR (1954), a searing indictment of American society during the McCarthy era.

In addition to his other books ALL FOR LOVE and THE LARDNERS; MY FAMILY REMEMBERED, Lardner wrote for "The Nation," "Esquire," the "New York Times," and the "Washington Post." Among his screenwriting credits following his blacklisting are "The Cincinnati Kid" and "M*A*S*H," the latter of which won the 1970 Grand Prix at Cannes.

Victor S. Navasky has served as editor, publisher and now publisher emeritus of The Nation and presently at the Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, where he directs the Delacorte Center of Magazines and chairs the Columbia Journalism Review.

An Oscar-winning screenwriter and the last surviving member of the Hollywood Ten, LardnerDwho passed away only 13 days ago takes the title for his slender memoir from his famous reply to the chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee. "I could answer," he said when asked if he had ever been a member of the Communist Party, "but if I did I would hate myself in the morning." Responding with humor when others would be indignant is one of Lardner's most appealing characteristics, along with his refusal to exaggerate the importance of the Hollywood blacklist. While quietly elucidating the professional harm and personal suffering experienced by screenwriters, directors and actors denied employment for more than a decade, the author also comments, "My nine months in prison is hardly to be compared to, say, the punishment endured by Andrei Sakharov or Nelson Mandela"Dnot even, he adds, to the struggles of civil rights activists. This levelheaded perspective is also notable in passages on the physical indignities of old age where Lardner, 85, remarks of treatment for his many ailments, "The best you can hope for is essentially a stay of execution." In addition to his political life, the author sketches his screenwriting career, whose highlights include Woman of the Year in 1942 and M*A*S*H in 1970, and briefly profiles his famous father, Ring Lardner Sr., his mother and three brothers. Most of this material will not be new to readers of his previous book, The Lardners (1976)Dindeed, some of it is word for word the sameDbut a new generation of film buffs and others interested in the McCarthy era will probably be just as charmed by Lardner's wit and unpretentiousness as their parents were. (Jan.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.