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The stories always follow the same convention: the six club members and a guest sit down to dinner, served by the incomparable waiter, Henry; during the meal it always comes out that the guest has a problem that the club members try to solve, to no avail; in the end, Henry, who is revealed to be also a club member, provides the correct, and usually very simple, answer. And Asimov intended them to ''always'' follow that pattern.Asimov 1994, ''I. Asimov'', op. cit., chapter "119. Mystery stories". ORIGINS The ''Black Widowers'' were based on a literary dining club Asimov belonged to known as the Trap Door Spiders .Asimov 1994, ''I. Asimov'', op. cit., chapter "120. The Trap Door Spiders". Members of the Widowers were based on real-life Spiders, some of them famous writers in their own right:
The deceased founder of the club, Ralph Ottur, on whom the plot of the story "To the Barest" turned, was based on the real-life founder of the Trap Door Spiders, Fletcher Pratt . The stage magician The Amazing Larri, from the story "The Cross of Lorraine", was based on James Randi . The arrogant science fiction writer Mortimer Stellar, from the story "When No Man Pursueth", was based on Asimov himself:. Asimov was a P. G. Wodehouse fan and a member of the Wodehouse Society.Seiler 2007, "Isaac Asimov FAQ", section "2.10. Did Asimov do anything other than write all day and all night?". He explained that Henry was not based on a real person, but might have been inspired in large part by Wodehouse's immortal character Jeeves . BOOKS The books each contained twelve stories. In most cases, nine stories were first published in various magazines while three were first published in the book. As was usual with Asimov's collections, many stories had chatty forewords or afterwords. # 1974 - '' Tales Of The Black Widowers '' # 1976 - '' More Tales Of The Black Widowers '' # 1980 - '' Casebook Of The Black Widowers '' # 1984 - '' Banquets Of The Black Widowers '' # 1990 - '' Puzzles Of The Black Widowers '' # 2003 - '' The Return Of The Black Widowers '' – published posthumously, with additional material by Charles Ardai and Harlan Ellison A few ''Black Widowers'' tales have been written by other authors as tributes to Asimov. One is "The Overheard Conversation" by Edward D. Hoch , which appears in the Festschrift Anthology '' Foundation's Friends '' (1989); another is "The Last Story," the Charles Ardai piece in ''Return of the Black Widowers'' (2003). REFERENCES ; Sources consulted ; Endnotes EXTERNAL LINKS
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