Lawrence Block

You know, I still have some and I have some in my office at the school where I teach.

I don't go back to them as much because usually what I do is I would buy like Lawrence Block's collection of all these columns and stuff.

So those I go back to.

So yeah.

This issue of Manhunt was the subject of an obscenity trial, and the court, writing in 1960, commented that these six stories do not have even the slightest redeeming social significance or importance, nor do they have any claim whatever to literary merit.

And then there's this, from Lawrence Block's introduction to the American Mystery Classic edition of Frederick Brown's The Fabulous Clip Joint.

I would find a writer, and then I would read one of his novels, and if I liked it, I'd read everything he wrote.

I remember that David Alexander was one writer who got this treatment.

The McBain name was now so intrinsically linked to the very concept of mystery writing that publisher Pocketbooks looked to cash in on his success by appending his name to a new magazine of mystery writing, Ed McBain's Mystery Book.

It contained stories by contemporaries such as Lawrence Block, Richard S. Prather and Anthony Bowsher, as well as debuting a new 87th Precinct short story, The Empty Hours.

Two editions of the magazine appeared in 1960, with the third and final issue hitting the shelves in 1961.

Having sold the rights to A Matter of Conviction, the New York Times reported that the two-week filming schedule began in Harlem on 1st June 1960, with 300 extras completing a chase scene around 101st Street and 2nd Avenue.

May 2005 saw the appearance of his memoir Let's Talk, which alternately told the story of his illness from both his and Dina's perspectives.

But despite his goal of reaching 93 and still writing, as his friend and hero P.G. Woodhouse had, Hunter passed away at the age of 78 on 6 July 2005.

A memorial service for the author was held in New York on 15 October 2005, with attendees including fellow authors Elmore Leonard and Lawrence Block, as well as publishers, agents, fans and friends.

The In Jeopardy! series got no further than Alice, although the partial manuscript for Becca in Jeopardy! was presented to Lawrence Block by Drogishka with a view to his completing the novel, much as Hunter himself had done with Craig Rice's The April Robin Murders back in 1958.

He puts it on the dash.

And there is a wonderful short story by Lawrence Block about Keller.

Keller is a guy who kills people for a living.

And there is a great short story where he ends up, getting to be friends with one of the guys he was going to kill.

I think I'm going to look more into her in the future.

So the second story is called See the Woman, and this author's name is Lawrence Block.

lawrence block uh this is another crime writer uh he is uh he has like a lot of long-standing shit um but he actually his big thing was he was named a grand master by the mystery writers of america uh in the 90s so this guy is is a legend uh in that genre i and i'm not a mystery guy for all of the all of the you know, speculative genre fiction stuff.

I do mystery is not one of them.

Uh, but this guy is, is very, very well respected in the industry and he's 88 years old, still kicking by the way.

You kind of want them to succeed.

The authors are Donald E. Westlake and Lawrence Block.

Sometimes I wonder what their characters would do in the age of DNA floating in the air.

Luckily, we never have to find out.

Lawrence Block and Donald E. Westlake, two good crime writers, see if you can find their books.

That's it for us at Plain English this week.

Today's transcript is at plainenglish.com. We'll be back with a new story next Monday.

The Scott Meredith Literary Agency plays a prominent role in the story of a number of well-known authors, not least the subject of our story, the not-yet-Evan Hunter himself.

Lawrence Block, Donald Westlake, Arthur C. Clarke, Paul Anderson, Philip K. Dick and Norman Mailer were all names associated with the firm.

The success of the agency was, however, built on the bedrock of one particular author, the British humorist P.G. Wodehouse.

By 1946, Wodehouse was already a legend of comic writing, but certain radio broadcasts that he had made whilst interned in Berlin, viewed by some as Nazi propaganda, had made his return to Britain an unhappy, in fact impossible prospect, and he instead found himself exiled to the United States.

Okay.

Um, and basically what happens is Lawrence Block likes to travel.

So he goes to someplace and then writes a book, right? Goes to someplace, writes a book.

Um, and then he, he had, um, uh, the books were going to be republished and the publisher says, uh, can you write us a new one? And then we'll publish all the old ones.

Yes.

Yes, I can do that.

Lawrence Locke was not a big fan of science fiction.

He didn't write almost anything, but whenever it's necessary to get the paycheck, he can do it.

Yeah,

but there's a really nice series of books by Lawrence Block, the Bernie Rodenbaugh novels, which are a bit, they're about a burglar who usually is burgling somewhere and a murder has happened in the building in which he is carrying out the burglary.

So he has to then try and find out the murder.

And the way he does it essentially is to get everyone in the same room, proper like golden age style burglars.

And given my age, there's a very good chance I won't remember anything that's in it.

And so I've been rereading a lot of the Matt Scudder novels by Lawrence Block, some of the old Stephen King.

I was a big fan of the old 87 Precinct novels by Ed McBain that were big years and years ago.

So I'm dipping and reading a lot of older stuff.