Tales from Gavagan's Bar

Infobox Book |
name = Tales from Gavagan's Bar
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Dust-jacket for "Tales from Gavagan's Bar"
author = L. Sprague deCamp and Fletcher Pratt
illustrator = Inga Pratt
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Fiction short stories
publisher = Twayne Publishers
release_date = 1953
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback)
pages = 228 pp
isbn = NA
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"Tales from Gavagan's Bar" is a collection of short stories by science fiction and fantasy authors L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt, illustrated by the latter's wife Inga Pratt. It was first published in hardcover by Twayne Publishers in 1953; an expanded edition retaining the original illustrations was published by Owlswick Press in 1978 and subsequently issued in paperback (without the illustrations) by Bantam Books in 1980. The pieces were originally published between 1950 and 1954, mostly in "The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction".

The Gavagan's Bar stories fall into the genre of barroom tall tales, though in this instance most of the tall tales turn out to be true, or at least possibly true. The authors patterned them after Lord Dunsany's "Jorkens" stories. The Gavagan's stories are widely considered classics.

Contents

Contents of the original edition:
*"The Gift of God"
*"Corpus Delectable"
*"The Better Mousetrap"
*"Elephas Frumenti"
*"Beasts of Bourbon"
*"The Love-Nest"
*"The Stone of the Sages"
*"Where To, Please?"
*"The Palimpsest of St. Augustine"
*"More Than Skin Deep"
*"No Forwarding Address"
*"When the Night Wind Howls" (retitled "Methought I Heard a Voice" in the expanded edition)
*"My Brother's Keeper"
*"A Dime Brings You Success"
*"The Rape of the Lock"
*"All That Glitters"
*"Here, Putzi!"
*"Gin Comes in Bottles"
*"The Black Ball"
*"The Green Thumb"
*"Caveat Emptor"
*"The Eve of St. John"
*"The Ancestral Amethyst"

Added in the expanded edition:
*"The Untimely Toper"
*"Oh, Say! Can You See?"
*"Bell, Book, and Candle"
*"There'd Be Thousands in It"
*"One Man's Meat"
*"The Weissenbroch Spectacles"
*"By and About" (afterword)

Continuations

According to de Camp, he and Pratt envisioned at least one more Gavagan's Bar story, about a vampire with a sweet tooth, which was never written due to Pratt's early death.

While L. Sprague de Camp never continued the series on his own, an additional Gavagan's Bar story authored by Michael F. Flynn, "The Ensorcelled ATM", appeared in Harry Turtledove's 2005 tribute anthology honoring de Camp, "". It ties the series in with de Camp's later W. Wilson Newbury stories.

References

*cite book | last=Laughlin | first=Charlotte | coauthors=Daniel J. H. Levack | title=De Camp: An L. Sprague de Camp Bibliography | location=San Francisco | publisher=Underwood/Miller | pages=94-95 | date=1983