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Looking for story set at dinner party, guest vanishes and erased from memory of others

 
 
Reply Wed 31 Aug, 2011 09:10 pm
Hi. I am trying to find a short story read by my father at high school in the 1950s. It is set at a dinner party. One guest claims he can make someone vanish and no-one will remember them. He starts them meditating, and when they come round, they all laugh at him that it didn't work. But it becomes clear the reader that one of the characters has disappeared. My father can't remember the title or the author. Can anyone help?
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Type: Question • Score: 3 • Views: 561 • Replies: 7
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MonaLeeza
 
  1  
Reply Wed 31 Aug, 2011 11:13 pm
@barnacles,
I think there are probably various versions of that story. I remember a similar one being told late at night around the fire at a Girl Guide camp back in the 1970's.
0 Replies
 
Butrflynet
 
  2  
Reply Wed 31 Aug, 2011 11:43 pm
@barnacles,
The only thing I found remotely close to it is this question someone asked two years ago about a similar plot.

You might contact them and see if they ever found it:

http://www.mahalo.com/answers/a-short-80s-film-plot-revolves-around-a-dinner-party-and-a-magicians-intriguing-proposal-anybody-name-it
barnacles
 
  1  
Reply Thu 1 Sep, 2011 05:08 pm
@Butrflynet,
Thanks for that. I have contacted them. The plot sounds almost identical. I wonder if the film was based on the story?
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awesomedancingcats
 
  1  
Reply Sun 16 Oct, 2011 03:45 am
@barnacles,
Hi, did you every find out the name of this short story? I read this when I was in high school in the 1980s and would LOVE to read it again!! It has played on my mind for so long and I just can't find it. But I do remember it was in an english short story text book. There was two text books the same and the other one had The Gift of the Magi and Flowers for Algernon in it.
OmSigDAVID
 
  1  
Reply Sun 16 Oct, 2011 07:45 am
@barnacles,
Quote:
Looking for story set at dinner party, guest vanishes and erased from memory of others
What does Emily Post recommend for such circumstances ?
0 Replies
 
Butrflynet
 
  1  
Reply Sun 16 Oct, 2011 02:50 pm
@awesomedancingcats,
Hi, ADC, Welcome to A2K.

If you remember any more details from the story, please add them to make the search for it more successful.
ossobuco
 
  1  
Reply Sun 16 Oct, 2011 04:22 pm
@Butrflynet,
This all reminds me of an Alfred Hitchcock series of short story books. None of the stories written by him - it was just a promotional thing. I have my own memories of one of those stories..

but not this one in particular. You might check those books out.
0 Replies
 
 

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