1908. Vance, American screenwriter, short story writer and novelist, begins The Black Bag begins: Upon a certain dreary April afternoon in the year of grace, 1906, the apprehensions of Philip Kirkwood, Esquire, Artist-peintre, were enlivened by the discovery that he was occupying that singularly distressing social position, which may be summed up succinctly in a phrase through long usage grown proverbial: Alone in London. These three words have come to connote in our understanding so much of human misery, to Mr. Kirkwood they seemed to epitomize absolutely, if not happily, the various circumstances attendant upon the predicament wherein he found himself. Inevitably an extremist, because of his youth, (he had just turned twenty-five), he took, no count of mitigating matters, and would hotly have resented the suggestion that his case was anything but altogether deplorable and forlorn. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.