I'm assuming that most of you know that WHEN THE SACRED
GINMILL CLOSES was an expanded version of the Scudder short
story, "By the Dawn's Early Light."
The short story has a kind of interesting background. Block
had agreed to write a Scudder story for Bob Randisi's first
PWA anthology, THE EYES HAVE IT. There was some passage of
time, however, between the agreement Block had made with
Randisis, and the anthology's coming to fruition. In the
interim, Block had written EIGHT MILLION WAYS TO DIE, which,
it seemed at the time, brought the series to its logical
conclusion. After all, once Scudder had taken the necessary
steps to conquer his alcoholism, what else was there to write
about.
Block's solution was to make the story what a
"continuity implant," setting it before the events of EIGHT
MILLION, and vaguely within the period covered by the first
four novels in the series. He simply started the story with
the words, "All this happened a long time ago," and went from
there.
He was so pleased with the final result, that he decided to
try for a big payoff market, and sent it to PLAYBOY, which
bought it and published it just weeks before its book
appearance in the EYES anthology.
It went on the win the Edgar (Block's first of four), the
Shamus (his second of four), and went on to become perhaps
his most reprinted story, later appearing in THE YEARS BEST
MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE STORIES - 1985, THE NEW EDGAR WINNERS,
THE EYES STILL HAVE IT, and THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES
OF THE CENTURY.
Understandably pleased at the reaction the story got, Block
decided to expand it to novel length, which resulted in WHEN
THE SACRED GINMILL CLOSES. This in turn, gave him the idea
that there was still life in the series, even if Scudder was
now a twelve-stepper. And, since there are now more
post-GINMILL entries in the series then there are pre-GINMILL
entries, it seems he was right. So much for a series that had
come to its "logical" end with the fifth novel.
I personally regard "By the Dawn's Early Light" as one of the
best PI short stories ever written. In fact, I rather prefer
it to the novel-length version. I'd be interested in seeing
if any of you, who've read both versions, feel the same
way.
JIM DOHERTY
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