A Damon Runyon question...

[Salv]

Now one day I am reading a collection of stories written by a guy named Mr. Damon Runyon, which is all about the goings on around and about Broadway. It is a surprise to find in one of said stories an example of a past tense, which occurrence I am led to believe is rarer than a day on which Frankie Ferocious does not pack a large John Roscoe. I will be grateful no little and then some if a fellow Lounger checks a different edition from the one I read, and confirms if this past tense is the old phonus bolonus, or is indeed that rare occurrence of a past tense in a story by the aforementioned Mr. Runyon. I read a UK collection which Picador publish in the year 1977, and which they call "On Broadway." This comprises three smaller collections going by the names "More Than Somewhat", "Furthermore" and, lastly, "Take It Easy."

In the story entitled "Breach Of Promise" an old guy who works as butler for Miss Amelia Bodkin explains about Miss Amelia Bodkin's love for a guy named Mr. Jabez Tuesday, who is not in any way an honourable guy. He talks to Harry the Horse, who lays up in Miss Amelia Bodkin's bed, the reasons for which we do not need to go in to, but suffice to say the situation is all on the up and up. The old guy tells Harry the Horse that Miss Amelia Bodkin and Mr. Jabez Tuesday are in love for many years, and in fact Miss Amelia Bodkin is a big help to Mr. Jabez Tuesday when he first starts up in business, and she loans him some dough and helps to manage the business and she makes it a very large business, indeed.

The old guy goes on and says: "...I can see he is getting away from her, although she never sees it herself, and I am not surprised when a few years ago he convinced her it is best for her to retire..."

Now, I am thinking that this should read "...a few years ago he convinces her to retire..." so can one of the guys or dolls in the Lounge confirm what is in their copy of "Breach Of Promise." It may be that there is a sub-editor at Picador books who is in need of a visit from Harry the Horse, Spanish John and Little Isadore, but it may also be that Mr. Damon Runyon slips up a little.

 

["Doc" Devereux]

So one evening I am just settling myself at the computer, and I see that my good friend Salv is asking questions of a tense nature. This is a thing that makes me as curious as Nathan Detroit hearing of a new crap game, so along I go to the Big Bookshelf and sure as eggs are eggs there is a copy of the book about which he is asking. It calls itself a 1990 Penguin edition, being taken from the 1950 omnibus by Constable and Company and is most certainly a different edition from the one of which Salv is speaking. Now since I do not believe that Penguin is part of Macmillan, which Picador most surely is, I find myself wondering if Salv's copy comes from the same root stock - since that same tense issue is present in my own copy...

I cannot help but think that if our books have the same 1950 omnibus as a root, that visitation is more than a little overdue.

 

[Salv]

So it seems that none of the guys and dolls in the Lounge are fans of Mr. Damon Runyon, none, that is, apart from "Doc" Devereux who is a stand-up guy if ever I see one, although it is by no means sure if he is in fact a doctor. I am very grateful to "Doc" Devereux for checking his copy of the story "Breach Of Contract" but it is no little shame that his copy of said story contains the same past tense as my copy. "Doc" Devereux and I shall therefore hope that some guy or doll who has yet another edition of stories by Mr. Damon Runyon which contains the story "Breach Of Contract" is yet able to tell us if our UK editions are the old phonus bolonus.

 

[Harp]

Vae Victus Veritas

...it may be of some consolation to note Runyon's lapse
of the standard English grammatical lexicon in favor of the
colloquialism and inherent structure indigenous of the race track
crows found frequenting Aqueduct in that time of the past century
when and where the late author frequently caroused.

P.S. Give me a week or two, old boy, and I'll hop over to the Harold Washington Library
for a little Runyonesque research.

 

[newspapercowboy]

Just a newshawk

As a newspaper guy, I know well that when my editor says to me watch the tenses, I know that she is not understanding the way my world speaks. Most often, I tell her that she should maybe think about joining one of those convents they got upstate, not strictly a bad thing, there being always a vacancy in that line of life, while bent-eared reporters are practically paying to work. She just gives me the look and I shuffle to my dsesk, wherein there is always a pint bottle of something not strictly legit.

 

[nightandthecity]

I am looking at my copy of Runyon on Broadway which is dated 1950 and is published by some guy called Constable which is a name i do not like to hear too often and these are the words I am reading

"I can see he is getting way from her, although she never sees it herself,and I am not surprised when a few years ago he convinces her it is best for her to retire from active work...."

So I am thinking that some rapscallion has taken a great liberty with the works of Mr Runyon who is a well respected citizen around these parts.

 

["Doc" Devereux]

So someone has indeed been making with the phonus balonus! Now suddenly I am wondering what it is that brings about such a mistake, and whether I should be finding myself a space in Nathan Detroit's floating crap game until Salv finishes making his displeasure known.

Should anyone wish to make a wager in the meantime, I have here a nice, brand new deck of cards in which the seal is not yet broke...

 

[Salv]

I am very happy to discover that Mr. Damon Runyon does not slip up by writing in the past tense in this story under discussion, and I am more than somewhat grateful to a certain party called nightandthecity who confirms this fact. However, I am curious to know from where nightandthecity gets hold of a copy of a 1950 edition of Runyon On Broadway, as such a book will no doubt look very good on my book shelves...

In the meantime I believe Harry the Horse, Spanish John and Little Isadore have appointments with a couple of British publishing houses.

(I am also more than somewhat grateful that I no longer have to think in Runyonese...)

 

[Salv]

For anyone wondering what the hell has been going on here, Runyon's story Dancing Dan's Christmas is available free on the net. It opens with these classic four sentences:

Now one time it comes on Christmas, and in fact it is the evening before Christmas, and I am in Good Time Charley Bernstein's little speakeasy in West Forty-seventh Street, wishing Charley a Merry Christmas and having a few hot Tom and Jerrys with him.

This hot Tom and Jerry is an old time drink that is once used by one and all in this country to celebrate Christmas with, and in fact it is once so popular that many people think Christmas is invented only to furnish an excuse for hot Tom and Jerry, although of course this is by no means true.

But anybody will tell you that there is nothing that brings out the true holiday spirit like hot Tom and Jerry, and I hear that since Tom and Jerry goes out of style in the United States, the holiday spirit is never quite the same.

Well, as Good Time Charley and I are expressing our holiday sentiments to each other over our hot Tom and Jerry, and I am trying to think up the poem about the night before Christmas and all through the house, which I know will interest Charley no little, all of a sudden there is a big knock at the front door, and when Charley opens the door, who comes in carrying a large package under one arm but a guy by the name of Dancing Dan.

 

[aliados]

So I am thinking that some rapscallion has taken a great liberty with the works of Mr Runyon who is a well respected citizen around these parts.

Should that not be, ". . . rapscallion takes a great liberty . . . "?

Seriously, I consider Damon Runyon to be one of the greatest writers of all time, and am personally always much enamored with his subject matter, myself hanging around Broadway at my Daddy"s elbow when I am a little shaver, watching him play poker with Box-Office Tony, White Willie, Tony the Boxer et al.

I cannot check the quote in question, as I am looking high and low for the collections for many years, and find only the British editions in my local library. It seems that these stories, for some bizarre reason, are not ion popular demand, and are long out of print . . . A pity!

 

[Salv]

Should that not be, ". . . rapscallion takes a great liberty . . . "?

lol Well spotted.

 

[martuney]

Should that not be, ". . . rapscallion takes a great liberty . . . "?

Seriously, I consider Damon Runyon to be one of the greatest writers of all time, and am personally always much enamored with his subject matter, myself hanging around Broadway at my Daddy"s elbow when I am a little shaver, watching him play poker with Box-Office Tony, White Willie, Tony the Boxer et al.

I cannot check the quote in question, as I am looking high and low for the collections for many years, and find only the British editions in my local library. It seems that these stories, for some bizarre reason, are not ion popular demand, and are long out of print . . . A pity!

not ion popular demand, and are long out of print . . . A pity![/QUOTE]
I am not so skilled in my Runyunese as these fine gentlemen, and am feeling not a little bit silly replying so many years after the fact, yet still I am finding myself feeling the need to be saying go to

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks11/1100651h.html

to find these books at the most appealing price of nothing at all.

 

[Talbot]

Many thanks for the link.

 

[martuney]

Many thanks for the link.

You are most welcome!