Asimov belonged to known as the Trap Door Spiders.Asimov 1994, I. Asimov, 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: Geoffrey Avalon, a patent attorney (based on L. Sprague de Camp) Emmanuel Rubin, a mystery novelist and acquaintance of Isaac Asimov (based on Lester del Rey) James Drake, a chemist (based on Dr. John D. Clark) Thomas Trumbull, an expert in cryptography for the United States government (based on Gilbert Cant) Mario Gonzalo, an artist, who usually draws a portrait of the evening's guest (based on Lin Carter) Roger Halsted, a high school mathematics teacher, fond of jokes and limericks (based on Don Bensen) Club waiter Henry Jackson was not based on a real person, but Asimov explained that he might have been inspired in large part by Wodehouse's immortal character Jeeves. Asimov was a P. G. Wodehouse fan and a member of the Wodehouse Society.Seiler&Jenkins 2009, "Isaac Asimov FAQ", section 2.10. "Did Asimov do anything other than write all day and all night?". 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. Some guests were also based on real people. The stage magician The Amazing Larri ("The Cross of Lorraine") was based on James Randi, while the arrogant science writer Mortimer Stellar ("When No Man Pursueth") was based on Asimov himself. Books and stories The first five books each contained twelve stories; in each case, 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. The sixth book, published posthumously, contained six previously uncollected stories, eleven reprinted from previous collections, and additional material by Charles Ardai, William Brittain 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", by Charles Ardai, in The Return of the Black Widowers (2003). The books and the stories collected in them are: Tales of the Black Widowers (1974) "The Acquisitive Chuckle" "Ph as in Phony" "Truth to Tell" "Go, Little Book!" "Early Sunday Morning"