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The Trials Of Hank Janson
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.
344 pages, Paperback
First published April 27, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 3, 2023
If you are not familiar with Steve’s work then you need to rectify that and a good way to do this is to visit his site Bear Alley, where you will find a wealth of writing about British comics and pulp fiction. The second step is to pick up a copy of The Trials of Hank Janson, a slightly expanded reissue of a book originally published by Holland in 2004, when it shortlisted for the prestigious Gold Dagger Award by the UK Crime Writers’ Association.
Janson was one of the most successful British pulp writers of the 1940s and early 1950s. His books during this time were violent faux American crime tales in a similar vein to the work of James Hadley Chase and Australia’s Carter Brown: gritty gangster tales, full of American slang and detail, set in large American cities such as Chicago or New York. In the UK context, these books were part of a much larger wave of faux American crime fiction that swept the country in the postwar period. This was influenced by American pulp magazines that found their way to the UK before the war, as well as the work of writers like Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Horace McCoy and W. R. Burnett.
A pseudonym for English author Stephen Daniel Frances, Hank Janson was both the name on the cover of the books and of the character between them, a tough Chicago reporter who faced down various malevolent criminal threats across the breadth of America. Holland writes: ‘Eight million copies of his novels sold to an audience that vicariously shared every kiss and every killing. 100,000 copies of each new novel thundered off the presses every six weeks into the hands of a voracious public.’ Notably, this was despite strict paper rationing in place in the UK at the time.
In early 1954 his work was dubbed obscene by the powers that be, in no small part to their incredibly lurid sexualised covers. His publisher and distributor were hauled before the courts and a warrant was issue for the author’s arrest. This was part of a much wider cracker down that on popular print material such as comics and pulp, that occurred in many countries in the 1950s, including Australia, as authorities wrestled with social and sexual undercurrents unleashed by WWII and the rise of teenagers and a major social force. Holland chronicled the UK iteration of this moral panic in his excellent 1993 book, The Mushroom Jungle: A History of Postwar Paperback Publishing.
While Janson was eventually found not guilty of peddling obscene material, he was attacked in the British parliament, banned in Northern Ireland, and newsagents that stocked his books were persecuted by the police. Although it did not stop him writing – his books continued to be published until the late 1960s (he died in 1989) – the experience left him incredibly bitter. Holland’s book is part biography, informed by correspondence with Frances while he was still alive, and part appreciation of France’s work. It is jam packed with solid research and fascinating detail about the author’s life and career and the wider context of midcentury British pulp publishing. It also includes a detailed bibliography of the author’s work as Frances and under the Janson and other names.
In stark contrast with the efforts made to chronicle the lives of literary figures, there are very few detailed biographies of pulp writers that I am aware of. There are lots of reasons for this: critical disdain of pulp as a genre; the lack of relevant research materials held by libraries; and the fact that these authors were often working so fast and so hard to scratch out a living that they didn’t have time to commit their thoughts to a diary or to think about what future generations might make of their work. The lucky ones had people like Holland to help them put together the detail of their lives on paper. And for that we should be very grateful.
Janson was one of the most successful British pulp writers of the 1940s and early 1950s. His books during this time were violent faux American crime tales in a similar vein to the work of James Hadley Chase and Australia’s Carter Brown: gritty gangster tales, full of American slang and detail, set in large American cities such as Chicago or New York. In the UK context, these books were part of a much larger wave of faux American crime fiction that swept the country in the postwar period. This was influenced by American pulp magazines that found their way to the UK before the war, as well as the work of writers like Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Horace McCoy and W. R. Burnett.
A pseudonym for English author Stephen Daniel Frances, Hank Janson was both the name on the cover of the books and of the character between them, a tough Chicago reporter who faced down various malevolent criminal threats across the breadth of America. Holland writes: ‘Eight million copies of his novels sold to an audience that vicariously shared every kiss and every killing. 100,000 copies of each new novel thundered off the presses every six weeks into the hands of a voracious public.’ Notably, this was despite strict paper rationing in place in the UK at the time.
In early 1954 his work was dubbed obscene by the powers that be, in no small part to their incredibly lurid sexualised covers. His publisher and distributor were hauled before the courts and a warrant was issue for the author’s arrest. This was part of a much wider cracker down that on popular print material such as comics and pulp, that occurred in many countries in the 1950s, including Australia, as authorities wrestled with social and sexual undercurrents unleashed by WWII and the rise of teenagers and a major social force. Holland chronicled the UK iteration of this moral panic in his excellent 1993 book, The Mushroom Jungle: A History of Postwar Paperback Publishing.
While Janson was eventually found not guilty of peddling obscene material, he was attacked in the British parliament, banned in Northern Ireland, and newsagents that stocked his books were persecuted by the police. Although it did not stop him writing – his books continued to be published until the late 1960s (he died in 1989) – the experience left him incredibly bitter. Holland’s book is part biography, informed by correspondence with Frances while he was still alive, and part appreciation of France’s work. It is jam packed with solid research and fascinating detail about the author’s life and career and the wider context of midcentury British pulp publishing. It also includes a detailed bibliography of the author’s work as Frances and under the Janson and other names.
In stark contrast with the efforts made to chronicle the lives of literary figures, there are very few detailed biographies of pulp writers that I am aware of. There are lots of reasons for this: critical disdain of pulp as a genre; the lack of relevant research materials held by libraries; and the fact that these authors were often working so fast and so hard to scratch out a living that they didn’t have time to commit their thoughts to a diary or to think about what future generations might make of their work. The lucky ones had people like Holland to help them put together the detail of their lives on paper. And for that we should be very grateful.
October 3, 2023
What a fascinating book! A cracking read and so well written. Holland keeps our interest from start to finish. We follow a rough chronological order of the life and times and events in Stephen Frances / Hank Janson's life. Holland never lets go of his objective to focus on censorship and prosecutions in the 50s and also letting us behind the veil in seeing a man whose life was dedicating to writing.
The insertions of mini-biographies worked really well. Asides are gently inserted and do not jar the narrative. We learn about players who hover round and contribute to Frances' story plus we get a poignant glimpse of the author's (Stephen Frances) trial and tribulations.
Whilst reading the book I wanted to read some original Janson to see what the fuss was about, and Holland provides that too - only salient extracts are used to illustrate the Old Bailey trials - which are condensed wonderfully concisely here.
I have to confess to fearing the ending of a man whose writings he wanted to defend as not obscene till the last. But again Steve Holland handles that well so the reader is satisfied.
I would have liked some colour photos but maybe that comes down to cost and in the end Steve Holland has drawn a very colourful biography of times long gone - but still resonant!
The insertions of mini-biographies worked really well. Asides are gently inserted and do not jar the narrative. We learn about players who hover round and contribute to Frances' story plus we get a poignant glimpse of the author's (Stephen Frances) trial and tribulations.
Whilst reading the book I wanted to read some original Janson to see what the fuss was about, and Holland provides that too - only salient extracts are used to illustrate the Old Bailey trials - which are condensed wonderfully concisely here.
I have to confess to fearing the ending of a man whose writings he wanted to defend as not obscene till the last. But again Steve Holland handles that well so the reader is satisfied.
I would have liked some colour photos but maybe that comes down to cost and in the end Steve Holland has drawn a very colourful biography of times long gone - but still resonant!
June 8, 2017
This fine book is several stories in one volume: a biography of Stephen Frances, author of pulp thrillers and other works of popular literature; an account of the "life" of Frances' best-known creation and occasional alter ego, Hank Janson; the tale of seat-of-the pants publishing in postwar England; and a chapter in the long 20th Century history of moral authority attempting to suppress books people want to read, the low rent district not far from Lady Chatterley's farm. Steve Holland's prose is clear and he sorts deftly through the sometimes complex accounts of who published whom under which names, sometimes with unclear attribution or authorship. The court cases are largely portrayed through transcripts, some of which reach Carrollian depths of assumed guilt before the trial even begins. Altogether, this book is mostly the story of a writer during the last great age of fictioneering, pumping out several books a month across multiple genres, successful enough and proud of his art even in the face of blue nosed persecution. It's a great story.
April 5, 2025
Fascinating portrait of Britain's best selling author throughout the 1950's. Steven Frances - aka - Hank Janson - was a prolific writer of pulp fiction novels which sold millions of copies during the postwar years. An ex communist and committed socialist his books were frequently condemned as obscene and subjected to stringent bans and prosecutions. A detailed- perhaps overly detailed - account of publishing in the UK immediately prior to the momentous Lady Chatterley trial and sure to be of interest to anyone interested in the tastes, mores and changing morals in the society of the time.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews