High School Sex Club: Collection of Classic Erotica - Book 16

by Lawrence Block

When I was sifting through copies of my pseudonymous erotic novels of the early 1960s, deciding which books to republish, HIGH SCHOOL SEX CLUB didn’t make the initial cut. While it’s true that it was once mentioned in the same breath as WAR AND PEACE (“Andrew Shaw’s HIGH SCHOOL SEX CLUB is, it must be said, no WAR AND PEACE.” —Philomela Triolet, The Hartshorn Review) it could probably disappear forever with the world of American letters being none the poorer for its absence. I know that’s hard to believe, given the really classy title I hung on the book, but Im afraid it’s true. So why is it here? I guess because of the book’s status as an artifact of its time. I’m not entirely sure of this, I can’t document it, but I was given to understand back in the day that several booksellers were brought up on charges for selling HIGH SCHOOL SEX CLUB, and one or two of them may even have gone to prison for it. This may well seem incredible in the second decade of the 21st century. The reader will note that the book contains none of the seven words the great George Carlin immortalized as “Words I can’t say on TV,” and Carlin’s list itself is quaint enough now that the only seven words you can’t utter on that medium are “Why are we watching all this crap?” Those of us who toiled in this particular vineyard made do without such words, and without precisely describing who was doing what and with which and to whom—and bore this handicap stoically while writing with the singular goal of making our books as erotically stimulating as we possibly could. To what extent HIGH SCHOOL SEX CLUB achieves that goal is not for me to say. The set-up lends itself to that end, with seventeen students and one rich and spoiled libertine ten years their senior organized for weekly orgies. Then—spoiler alert!—something goes wrong, and, as I’d have had to say back then, the spit hits the fan. And then the boiler blows up and kills them all. (A story, perhaps apocryphal, to explain that last sentence. There was this brilliantly talented albeit unpublished writer, I’d been given to understand, who would write one novel after another, each building up to the brink of a conclusion, and then ending abruptly with a one-sentence “And then the boiler blew up and killed them all.” They could be out in the middle of the desert, a hundred miles from the nearest boiler. It didn’t matter. That’s what he wrote, at least according to this tale told in publishing circles, and one can very likely infer what might have been the seminal event in his own unhappy life. Never mind. Something evidently made authorities in various jurisdictions across the country single out HIGH SCHOOL SEX CLUB for censorship and suppression. Really? Hard to say, but it seems to be unarguable that Nightstand Books never did a second printing, or any other sort of latter-day reissue thereof. It couldn’t have been good taste or literary sensibilities that kept the book out of print, as neither weighed heavily in their decisions. Perhaps it was the book’s own history. In the face of all of the above, could I fail to offer you the opportunity to read the chilling account of Dean Hanson and his adolescent followers? I think not. Here it is, so read it or don’t, and make what you will of it. This ebook edition of HIGH SCHOOL SEX CLUB, #16 in the Collection of Classic Erotica, includes as a bonus the opening chapter of the next book in the series, I SELL LOVE.

178 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 23, 2016

About the author

Lawrence Block has been writing crime, mystery, and suspense fiction for more than half a century. He has published in excess (oh, wretched excess!) of 100 books, and no end of short stories.

Born in Buffalo, N.Y., LB attended Antioch College, but left before completing his studies; school authorities advised him that they felt he’d be happier elsewhere, and he thought this was remarkably perceptive of them.

His earliest work, published pseudonymously in the late 1950s, was mostly in the field of midcentury erotica, an apprenticeship he shared with Donald E. Westlake and Robert Silverberg. The first time Lawrence Block’s name appeared in print was when his short story “You Can’t Lose” was published in the February 1958 issue of Manhunt. The first book published under his own name was Mona (1961); it was reissued several times over the years, once as Sweet Slow Death. In 2005 it became the first offering from Hard Case Crime, and bore for the first time LB’s original title, Grifter’s Game.

LB is best known for his series characters, including cop-turned-private investigator Matthew Scudder, gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, globe-trotting insomniac Evan Tanner, and introspective assassin Keller.

Because one name is never enough, LB has also published under pseudonyms including Jill Emerson, John Warren Wells, Lesley Evans, and Anne Campbell Clarke.

LB’s magazine appearances include American Heritage, Redbook, Playboy, Linn’s Stamp News, Cosmopolitan, GQ, and The New York Times. His monthly instructional column ran in Writer’s Digest for 14 years, and led to a string of books for writers, including the classics Telling Lies for Fun & Profit and The Liar’s Bible. He has also written episodic television (Tilt!) and the Wong Kar-wai film, My Blueberry Nights.

Several of LB’s books have been filmed. The latest, A Walk Among the Tombstones, stars Liam Neeson as Matthew Scudder and is scheduled for release in September, 2014.

LB is a Grand Master of Mystery Writers of America, and a past president of MWA and the Private Eye Writers of America. He has won the Edgar and Shamus awards four times each, and the Japanese Maltese Falcon award twice, as well as the Nero Wolfe and Philip Marlowe awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and the Diamond Dagger for Life Achievement from the Crime Writers Association (UK). He’s also been honored with the Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award from Mystery Ink magazine and the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer for Lifetime Achievement in the short story. In France, he has been proclaimed a Grand Maitre du Roman Noir and has twice been awarded the Societe 813 trophy. He has been a guest of honor at Bouchercon and at book fairs and mystery festivals in France, Germany, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and Taiwan. As if that were not enough, he was also presented with the key to the city of Muncie, Indiana. (But as soon as he left, they changed the locks.)

LB and his wife Lynne are enthusiastic New Yorkers and relentless world travelers; the two are members of the Travelers Century Club, and have visited around 160 countries.

He is a modest and humble fellow, although you would never guess as much from this biographical note.