Recursive Novels About Writing Sleazecore
I recently came across the term “sleazecore” and I like it.
I have obtained copies of two novels that are recursive of the vintage sleazsecore writing career:
Dresner wrote as Don Holliday, John Dexter, and Andrew Shaw, but mostly Holiday, before selling this novel and heading to Hollywood as Jack Lemmon’s lead writer. Westlake wrote as the second Andrew Shaw, Alan Marshall, and Sheldon Lord now and then (toss in a Dexter or two), and then flowed into his career as a mystery and crime writer.
Both novels draw on their experieces working for/with Scott Meredith and writing for Nightstand/Greenleaf.
Well, at least these guys got something mainstream out of those many hard (no pun) hours at the typewriters.
There are some memoirs/autobios out there too, such as Victor Banis’ wonderful Spine Intanct, Some Creases (about leading the gay pulp era with Greenleaf, and dealing with the feds and prosecution); Charle
s’ Neutzel’s Pocketbook Writer (about the Los Angeles-based sleazecore industry); and Linda deBruiel’s The Girl Who Writes Dirty Books (about the some 300 she wrote, for Greenleaf, Leisure, Dorchester, and others).
I would probably toss in Barry Malzberg’s The Spread as well, a novel about a sleaze tabloid publisher cracking up, because the basis is the sleaze publishing industry in general, and Malzberg’s short stint as editor for low-tier men’s magazine, Escapade, and his early Mel Johnson stories for Knave and others.
There are probably others I have not seen yet.
Online, of course, there is Earl Kemp’s e-journal/memoir, el.
