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Don Marquis Revisited
 

EDWARD ANTHONY
 

NE DAY at the Players Club in Gramercy Park, I was
discussing Don Marquis with a man who had known
him \vell—Lawton Mackall, familiar to gourmets as the
author of books on wines and comestibles. Playwright-actor-pro¬
ducer Howard Lindsay, the extremely active and cooperative
president of the club and himself a friend of Marquis's (in the
1920s and '30s), had authorized the mailing of a letter to all
Players requesting those who had any anecdotes, leads or memo¬
rabilia involving former member Don Afarquis to get in touch
with me in connection with a biography of the humorist-poet-
playwright that I was writing for Doubleday & Co. The biogra¬
phy has since been published as O Rare Don Marquis.

Only Homicidal Once

One of the first members of that historic stronghold of genriit-
lichkeit to reply was .Mr. .Alackall, who supplied some excellent
anecdotes and tips. One of his suggestions was that I try to track
down the details (most of which he had forgotten) of a long and
absorbing story i\farquis had told him about an exciting exper¬
ience he had had when, as a young man, he had worked as a rail¬
road laborer. A'lackall considered the story significant because
 

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