"The Eighty-Yard Run" is a work of short fiction by Irwin Shaw, originally published in Esquire (January 1941) and first collected in Welcome to the City and Other Stories (1942) by Random House.
[6][7][8] Literary critic James R. Giles reports that a number of Shaw’s stories "rank with the most distinguished American short fiction, including 'The Eighty-Yard Run.
"[11] Author and editor Willie Morris recalls reading "The Eighty-Yard Run" as a sixth-grader and considers it "probably my first true introduction to great writing."
[13] The contrast between Christian’s arrested maturation—his wife Louise addresses him as "baby"—and her development of a professional career and social relationships, form a central thematic element.
Shaw augments this contrast with the "innocence" of Christian’s Midwest roots and his alienation in New York City - "a center of sophisticated sexual, artistic and political experience.
It’s a symbol for America, because it begins in the boom times of the 1920s when Americans were thinking they were sitting on top of the world and nothing could stop them, and then the plunge into the Depression...[15]