Trap door spiders

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The Trap Door Spiders ( English for 'trapdoor spiders') were a literary group founded in New York City in 1944 . The all-male membership was initially recruited mainly from the environment of well-known science fiction authors. The name referred to the behavior of the actual trapdoor spiders , who close it with a lid after entering their burrow.

prehistory

Fletcher Pratt responded by founding the club to the wedding of his friend John D. Clark to the soprano Mildred Baldwin in June 1943. The new Mrs. Clark was rather unpopular with her husband's circle of friends and Pratt took the club as an excuse, Clark without his wife to be able to meet. Pratt's wife, however, was the maid of honor and Lyon Sprague de Camp as Clark's “ Best Man ” was involved in the wedding.

The club's board of directors rotated among the members, demanding that a meal be hosted in a restaurant and that a guest be invited. The guest was questioned more or less sharply and thus fertilized the conversation for the evening. The interview was usually started by the host, often with the question "How do you justify your existence" or "Why do you exist". Jack Coggins remembers that an editor of Reader's Digest left the group crying after such a survey ("grill").

In 1976, the club met regularly on Friday evenings a month and had about thirteen members.

The club existed at least until January 1990, Isaac Asimov's 70th birthday. The members met at a party organized by the publisher Doubleday for Asimov in Tavern on the Green in New York City. After L. Sprague de Camp, the club was still active in the 1990s.

membership

You became a member by accepting an invitation; those who moved away, died or no longer participated regularly for other reasons left the group again. Well-known members were among others:

According to Isaac Asimov, the core of the group consisted of Bensen, Cant, Carter, Clark, de Camp, del Rey and Asimov himself. He immortalized the group in the Black Widowers , a series of short detective stories. The riddle of the evening is usually solved by the waiter Henry, who alludes to the fictional Reginald Jeeves .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Walter Sullivan : Willy Ley, Prolific Science Writer, Is Dead at 62. In The New York Times , June 25, 1969, p. 47
  2. ^ Mildred Baldwin Bride: Opera Singer Wed to Dr. John D. Clark in Ceremony Here. In The New York Times , Jun 8, 1943, p. 24
  3. ↑ a b Ron Miller: Jack Coggins ; Interview and article in Outre Magazine No. 23, 2001, pp. 42-49.
  4. ^ Levy, Claudia: Decorated Rear Adm. Caleb B. Laning Dies. In The Washington Post , June 8, 1991, p. B6
  5. ↑ Fletcher Pratt, Historian, Dead. In The New York Times , Jun 11, 1956, p. 30
  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h page 377
  2. ↑ a b pages 376–377
  3. ↑ pp. 538-539
  4. ↑ a b c d e f page 378
  5. ↑ pp. 377–378
  6. ↑ page 468
  7. ↑ page 373
  1. ↑ a b c page 196
  2. ↑ a b page 362
  3. ↑ page 265
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