The Trials of Hank Janson [Paperback]

Steve Holland (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 27, 2004

Short listed for the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award for Non-Fiction In January 1954 twelve jurors sat at the Old Bailey to hear charges of obscenity against seven crime novels written by the immensely popular Hank Janson, whose sexy thrillers had sold five million copies in only six years. Hank's publisher and distributor were found guilty and imprisoned and an arrest warrant put out for the author. The Trials of Hank Janson presents a full biography of that author - in reality, a man named Stephen D Frances - from his early life, through the highs and lows he experienced with the Janson novels, to his eventual decline and death in Spain, cut off from the character he had created. In addition, respected researcher and pulp fiction historian Steve Holland gives, for the first time, a comprehensive account of the early 1950s Home Office crackdown on so called 'obscene' paperbacks - of which the Janson novels were the prime examples - during which some 350,000 books and magazines were destroyed on magistrates' instructions: a true story less notorious but no less remarkable than the controversy surrounding Lady Chatterley's Lover. The Trials of Hank Janson also details the full publishing history of the Janson stories, from 1946 right up to the present day with Telos's reissue series.

Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Telos Publishing; 1 edition (April 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1903889847
• ISBN-13: 978-1903889848
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,081,413 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Steve Holland has been a freelance author and editor for over twenty years. He began writing seriously in the mid-1980s and went full time in 1990 since when he has had over 1,500 articles published and written or edited over 50 books. An expert on British comics and pulp paperbacks, he has appeared numerous times on radio and television. His The Mushroom Jungle was nominated for an Anthony award at Bouchercon and The Trials of Hank Janson was a runner-up for the Crime Writers' Association's Silver Dagger Award for non-fiction. He is an avid blogger, posting daily at Bear Alley.