From: Kafka Dreams 
To: still
Subject: a fine thing
Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 01:23:36 -0400


It is a very fine thing to have the book GUYS AND DOLLS by Damon
Runyon on your nightstand or in your bathroom, where you can read the
brief but perfectly drawn stories of Damon Runyon.

Mr. Runyon (1848-1946), if you do not know, in his time writes many
short stories, several of which are adapted into the musical play GUYS
AND DOLLS (but the main sources are a couple of short stories - "The
Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" and "Blood Pressure").  He is a well known
guy for the use of Broadway slang, even though he is a person who
originates from Colorado, and also for the constant use of the present
tense in all his writings.

You may think the constant use of present tense in all writings is a
bum trick Mr. Runyon uses in his time in order to garnish as many
potatoes as possible, but you are wrong in that it is very amusing and
also enlightening, not to mention funny.

There is only one collection of Mr. Runyon's stories in print and the
ISBN number is 0140176594.  I suggest, if you know what is good for
your soul, that you give up a few potatoes to purchase this volume.

For more information about Mr. Runyon, you might like this URL here:

  http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/runyon.htm

Or this location, which contains a greater amount of detail:

  http://www.pressclub.org/about/history/drunyon.htm

Kelly J.