Robert McAlmon (1896–1956)

The [1] rating is for the eBook editions (2011 to 2016) from various grey market publishers which are advertised with the description: "earlier, more textually honest version of the author's account of gay/trans life in Berlin that was later reprinted in "Rustle of Black Silk Stockings," as originally published by his own press in Paris."

Whether through intentional bowdlerization and deception or through ordinary incompetence all of these eBooks drop the "Miss Knight" short story from the original trio of 1921 Berlin-based tales (the two others are "Distinguished Air" and "The Lodging House") and quietly add a later midwestern-America based story "The Indefinite Huntress" from 1932 in its place.

No authentic modern edition of "Distinguished Air" (Contact Editions, 1925) thus exists, but the 3 Berlin stories are collected in either the 1962 exploitation paperback "There Was a Rustle of Black Silk Stockings" (which adds an unrelated story "The Highly-Prized Pajamas") or the more scholarly 1999 "Miss Knight and Others" (which also adds "The Indefinite Huntress").

A true edition would rate a [3] for its historical curiosity and its lost-generation & gay/trans life tie-ins. McAlmon's stories were based on his 1921 time in Berlin and thus predate Christopher Isherwood's "The Berlin Stories: The Last of Mr Norris/Goodbye to Berlin" (the basis for the later play "I Am a Camera" and then the famous musical & movie "Cabaret") based on the latter's 1931-33 Berlin experience. While McAlmon is more open about the antics & drug use, his stories come across as dull hedonism reportage which lacks the doomed aura that surrounds Isherwood's characters trapped in the world of the emerging Nazi totalitarian state.

Stray Observations
- Fordham University Press are publishing a scholarly edition of Robert Scully's "A Scarlet Pansy" (originally William Faro 1932) as of September 2016. Because of that book's parallels to McAlmon's life and his Paris lost generation associates and to elements of the "Miss Knight" short story, there has been speculation that McAlmon was behind the pseudonym of author Robert Scully. McAlmon authorities doubt that the gossipy McAlmon would have kept this a secret for the rest of his life though. Perhaps Robert J Corber, editor of the new edition, will help clear up the speculation.… (mais)