Trap Door Spiders
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- For other uses, see Trapdoor spider.
The Trap Door Spiders is the name of a literary male-only eating, drinking, and arguing society in New York City, with a membership historically composed of notable science fiction personalities. The name is a reference to the exclusive habits of the trapdoor spider, which when it enters its burrow pulls the hatch shut behind it.
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[edit] History, membership and practices
The Trap Door Spiders were established by author Fletcher Pratt in 1944. The impetus for its formation was that his friend Dr. John D. Clark was about to marry. As the new Mrs. Clark was unpopular with her husband's friends, Pratt reasoned that the club would give them an excuse to spend time with him without her.
Membership in the club varied as some Trap Door Spiders died or moved away and others were admitted on the nomination of existing members. Over the course of its existence the Trap Door Spiders has counted among its members numerous writers and editors active in the science fiction genre, along with some prominent fans such as Dr. Clark. Owing to the writings of Isaac Asimov (see below), those most closely associated with the group are Clark, editors Gilbert Cant and Don Bensen, author and editor Lester del Rey, authors L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, and Asimov himself. Other known members included Jack Coggins, Kenneth L. Franklin, Martin Gardner and Caleb Barrett Laning.
The get-togethers of the Trap Door Spiders followed a set format, which remained consistent through the years; a meal, to which a guest would be invited by one of the members to be grilled by the others and form the focus of conversation for the evening. The grilling was traditionally begun by the host for the evening enquiring of the guest "How do you justify your existence?" or some variation, such as "Why do you exist?" As of 1976, the club met roughly one Friday a month, eight or nine times a year, and maintained a membership of thirteen, among whom the privilege of hosting the meetings rotated. The host of a given meeting selected the restaurant, wine, and menu for the evening, and had the option of inviting one or two guests he believed might prove interesting to the other members.
The group remained active through at least January 16, 1990, when its members attended a party given by Doubleday for Isaac Asimov at Tavern on the Green in New York City. The event commemorated Asimov's seventieth birthday and the fortieth anniversary of the publication of his first book.
[edit] The Trap Door Spiders in fiction
The Trap Door Spiders are notable as the inspiration for Isaac Asimov's fictional group of puzzle solvers the Black Widowers, protagonists of a long-running series of mystery short stories. Asimov, a Boston resident who was often an invited guest of the Trap Door Spiders when in New York, became a permanent member of the club when he moved to the area in 1970.
Asimov loosely modeled his fictional "Black Widowers" on six of the real-life Trap Door Spiders. He gave his characters professions somewhat more varied than those of their models, while retaining aspects of their personalities and appearances. Asimov's characters and their real-life counterparts are:
- Geoffrey Avalon (L. Sprague de Camp)
- Emmanuel Rubin (Lester del Rey)
- James Drake (John D. Clark)
- Thomas Trumbull (Gilbert Cant)
- Mario Gonzalo (Lin Carter)
- Roger Halsted (Don Bensen)
Fletcher Pratt was also fictionalized (albeit deceased and offstage) as Ralph Ottur in the story "To the Barest." Asimov once even wrote himself into a Black Widowers story (as a guest) in a humorously unflattering portrayal. The remaining member of the Widowers, the group's waiter and unfailing sleuth Henry, was completely fictional, being based on P.G. Wodehouse's character Jeeves from the Bertie Wooster novels.
