November and December are Lawrence Block months here at
Rara-Avis. And I'm honored to introduce him, not that
he needs an introduction here
(and not that I'm a particular authority on him, but I have
been a long time fan). So I thought I'd offer a brief
summary of his career as a starting point for
discussion.
Lawrence Block is truly a Grand Master of crime
fiction, as the Mystery Writers of America have named
him. He has also won numerous awards in the
field. One of the more prolific writers of the last
half century, Block's work has now come full circle.
Several of his early paperback originals, written for
publishers as varied as the sleazy Beacon to the more
respected (though not necessarily respectable) Gold Medal,
are now helping initiate a new paperback publishing line,
Hard Case Crime. But he is not just known for his
reprints. Block continues to publish new books, both in
his several series and as standalones.
That's how Block started in crime fiction, with a
bunch of classic standalones written in the early '60s.
He wrote for Gold Medal under his own name, but Sheldon Lord
was used at Beacon. As Hard Case's recent reprint,
Lucky at Cards (originally The Sex Shuffle), proved, in
Block's sleaze novels, the "good parts" are not just the sex
scenes. Lord was but one of Block's numerous
pseudonyms, which he used to write everything from sex
exposes of stewardesses, hookers, johns, etc (as John Warren
Wells), lesbian titillation (as Jill Emerson) to teen sex
farce (as Chip Harrison).
Block began to write series in the late '60s, starting
with several books featuring international adventurer Evan
Tanner. In the mid
'70s, Block started two series, PI Matt Scudder was closely
followed by burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr. Both of them
continue on, these twenty years later. Recently, Block
added another series about an easygoing hit man named
Keller.
Alongside these series, he has continued to write
standalones, some crime, some not. There's Random Walk
about, well, a random walk. The title of Ronald Rabbit
is a Dirty Old Man seems self-explanatory. Ariel was
found in the horror section. Small Town returns him to
crime.
Now I haven't read everything he's written, far from
it. In fact, I have not yet read any of the books
mentioned in the previous paragraph, nor any from the Tanner
series. But that's what this month is about, to
re-familiarize ourselves with the Block we know and expose
ourselves to some Block we don't. We can all help each
other figure out which are most worth reading and
rereading.
Well, that's my overall introduction to the works of
Block. Over the next few days, I will be putting up
individual postings about different parts of his career,
including:
His early crime fiction standalones His pseudonymous
works Evan Tanner series Matt Scudder series Burglar series
Keller series Reprints of his early work
And the first will be an introduction to his works under the
name Paul Kavanagh.
Mark
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