Hank Janson

Uncategorized

Created by Hank Janson
Pseudonym of Stephen D. Frances

“I had to kinda peel her off me. Her pointed nails seared across my back, tore skin through my thin shirt. A piece of my lip went with her and, as I gripped her bare shoulders, she was panting uncontrollably, eyes swimmy and semi-conscious. A little trickle of blood ran down from her parted lips . . .”
— Shocking! Somebody call the thought police!

HANK JANSON wasn’t so much a “tough Chicago reporter” (or even, later in his career, a hard-boiled private eye)  as a publishing phenomenon.

In the years following World War II, there were over thirteen million Hank Janson paperbacks sold, mostly in the U.K. They were American-style crime fiction, what the Britsh called “tough gangster thrillers,” a swirl of hard-boiled patter, brutal violence and shockingly raw–for the times–sex, presenting a romanticized version of a mobster-ridden America that post-war England just couldn’t seem to get enough of, and very much reminiscent of the work of fellow Brits James Hadley Chase, Carter Brown and Peter Cheyney, who had all become very successful, cranking out the same sort of stuff, despite the fact that not one of them, at least in the beginning, had ever been to the States. Of course, the gorgeous covers by Reginald Heade, featuring drop-dead gorgeous women in some of the most erotic poses imaginable, didn’t hurt, and it’s easy to imagine hordes of horny English schoolboys never getting much beyond the covers.

The first Janson book (more a novelette than a novel, actually) was a rush job, cranked out by Stephen Frances over a frantic weekend in 1946. Seems Frances, the owner of Pendulum, a small publishing house circling the drain, had a windfall of sorts: a printer had enough paper for a 20,000 run of a 24-page book, if he was interested. Paper being in very short supply (war rationing, etc.), Frances jumped at the chance.

The only catch? The call came on a Friday morning, and the book had to go to press on Monday. And Frances didn’t have anything ready to go. So he and his secretary, Muriel, worked over the weekend, him dictating and her typing what would become Hank Janson’s first adventure, the 15,000 worder, When Dames Get Tough, published as by “Hank Janson,” for an extra dash of versimultude.

The book didn’t seem particularly promising–at this point, Hank wasn’t a two-fisted reporter or private eye–he was a two-fisted traveling salesman based in New York City, selling ladies cosmetics. And yet this fast-paced, ripsnorting tale, narrated by Janson in an approximation of American tough guy patter, full of dime store cynicism and snark, wrapped around enough pulpy action to keep things moving, was just what male readers apparently wanted. There’s a beautiful damsel in distress, assorted thugs, black market goods, a switcheroo or two, another blonde babe, and a whole lot of people more than willing to wipe Hank off the face of the earth.

But the book sold like crazy, and a sequel, Scarred Faces, comprising two short stories, soon followed. Clocking in at a whopping sixty-four pages, this one also flew off the shelves. But it was too late to save struggling Pendulum Publishing, and when the plug was finally pulled, Frances decided to keep the nascent series going, acting initially as both writer and publisher.

Within a few books, perhaps realizing lipstick salesman wasn’t the best gig for a six-foot three, 200 pound bruiser series hero, Hank became a reporter for the Chicago Chronicle. And so, for ten years he churned out a book a month, over three hundred of the suckers altogether. “I felt more like a factory than an author,” he said. Sales, meanwhile, climbed to an astonishing 100,000 a month.

The demand proved insatiable, and “Hank Hanson” became, for a while, the bestselling author in the U.K. Soon the books were being divided into series, with the ever-evolving hero of the series taking on different occupations (A P.I.! A spy!), assignments, settings and even themes with each series. To their credit, and despite the fluid nature of the books, Frances and the various writers of the series did try to instill some continuity into the books–a true rarity in the “mushroom jungle,” the name given by author Steve Holland to the post-war British pulp fiction boom.

Naturally, with all that success, those covers and all those lovingly described “creamy breasts and glistening thighs,” somebody was bound to disapprove, and in the fifties, the powers-that-be decided to crack down on the Janson books, citing the Obscene Publications Act, which resulted in seven of the titles being banned, with two of the books’ publishers receiving hefty fines, and two of the owners, Reginald Carter and Julius Reiter, being sentenced to six months in jail. Frances himself, by then living in Spain, narrowly escaped joining them when he was acquitted of all charges, after claiming that he did not actually write the Janson books–it was this Janson guy! (Wise guys all over the web are fond of pointing out that Frances in fact did not write the Hank Janson books–he dictated them).

No, the Hank Janson books were never great literature (something even their creator would admit), and by the end, the books had degenerated into borderline pornography, but at the height of their overwhelming popularity they were just what the British reading public wanted–some smart, savvy and steamy pulp fiction, delivered hot and fresh on a monthly basis.

There are worse crimes.

WOULD THE REAL HANK JANSON PLEASE STAND UP?

Stephen D. France, Hanson’s creator and the first to use the house pen name, was the sole author of the books from 1946 to 1953, and occasionally contributed to the canon until 1959, but by then the public demand was so great that other writers were soon invited onboard the gravy train, including D. F. Crawley, Harry Hobson, Victor George Charles Norwood and James Moffatt.

UNDER OATH

  • “… the titles alone drove my blood wild—Torment for Trixy—Hotsy, You’ll be Chilled—and on the cover a vivid blonde, blouse ripped, skirt hitched up to her thighs, struggling sweetly against chains, ropes and a gag—and in the top right hand corner, set in a small circle, like a medallion, the silhouette presumably of Hank himself, trench coat open, trilby tilted back, a cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth.”
    — Simon Gray (British playwright )
  • “They are cracking, hard-boiled crime yarns that still stand up as thrilling tales. But more than that, they give a fascinating insight into the attitudes, customs and morals — particularly sexual morals — of the Fifties. The un-PC nature of  Hank’s exploits certainly comes as a shock to modern sensibilities.”
    — Stephen James Walker (British film director)
  • “The first hard-boiled crime novels I read were written by an Englishman pretending to be American: Stephen Daniel Frances, using the pseudonym Hank Janson, which was also the name of his hero. With titles like Smart Girls Don’t Talk and Sweetheart, Here’s Your Grave, the Janson books, dolled up in suitably tantalizing covers, made their way, hand to hand, around the school playground, falling open at any passage that, to our young minds, seemed sexy and daring. This was a Catholic boys’ grammar school after all, and any reference to parts of the body below the waist, other than foot or knee, was thought to merit, if not excommunication, at least three Our Fathers and a dozen Hail Marys.”
    — John Harvey
  • “When Dames Get Tough, Hotsy, You’ll Be Chilled and Blonde On The Spot, not forgetting that classic, Broads Don’t Scare Easy, are being released as e-books. Even my favourite Skirts Bring Me Sorrow, which is—since you ask—a personal confession as well as a book title, is there. Across Britain, Kindles are about to burst into flames.”
    — Colin Dunne on the imminent release of long-out-of-print Janson paperbacks as ebooks (January 2014, The Daily Mail)
  • “A two-fisted hero for one-fisted readers!”
    — Duke Seabrook

NOVELS & NOVELETTES

 

  • According to Telos, the British publisher who have been busy reprinting the Hank Janson books since 2013 or so,”The classic…lasted from 1946 to 1953… which were divided into five main series and a number of specials.” As well, Gold Star Books published a series of seventeen books, featuring cover artwork by Paul Rader, Harry Barton, and Robert Maguire. 
  • THE CLASSIC HANK JANSON
  • PRE-SERIES BOOKS
  • “When Dames Get Tough” (1946)
  • “Scarred Faces” (1946, Scarred Faces)
  • “Kitty Takes the Rap” (1946, Scarred Faces)
  • SERIES ONE
  • This Woman Is Death (1948) | Buy this book  | Kindle it!
  • Lady, Mind That Corpse (1948)
  • Gun Moll for Hire (1948)
  • No Regrets for Clara (1949)
  • Smart Girls Don’t Talk (1949)
  • Lilies for My Lovely (1949) | Buy this book  | Kindle it!
  • Blonde on the Spot (1949) | Buy this book  | Kindle it!
  • Honey Take My Gun (1949)
  • Sweetheart, Here’s Your Grave! (1949)
  • Gunsmoke in Her Eyes (1949)
  • Angel Shoot to Kill (1949)
  • Slay-Ride for Cutie (1949)
  • SERIES TWO
  • Sister, Don’t Hate Me (1949)
  • Some Look Better Dead (1950) | Buy this book  | Kindle it!
  • Sweetie, Hold Me Tight (1950)
  • Torment for Trixie (1950)
  • Don’t Dare Me, Sugar (1950)
  • The Lady Has a Scar (1950) | Buy this book  | Kindle it!
  • The Jane with Green Eyes (1950)
  • Lola Brought Her Wreath (1950)
  • Lady, Toll the Bell (1950)
  • The Bride Wore Weeds (1950)
  • Don’t Mourn Me, Toots (1951)
  • This Dame Dies Soon (1951)
  • SERIES THREE
  • Baby, Don’t Dare Squeal (1951)
  • Death Wore a Petticoat (1951)
  • It’s Always Eve That Weeps (1951)
  • Frails Can Be So Tough (1951) | Buy this book  | Kindle it!
  • Milady Took the Rap (1951)
  • Women Hate Till Death (1951) | Kindle it!
  • Broads Don’t Scare Easy (1951) | Buy this book  | Kindle it!
  • Skirts Bring Me Sorrow (1952) | Buy this book  | Kindle it!
  • Sadie Don’t Cry Now (1952)
  • The Filly Wore a Rod (1952)
  • Kill Her If You Can (1952) | Buy this book  | Kindle it!
  • SERIES FOUR
  • Murder (1952)
  • Conflict (1952)
  • Tension (1952)
  • Hotsy, You’ll Be Chilled (1951)
  • Sister Don’t Hate Me (1951)
  • Whiplash (1952)
  • Accused (1952) | Buy this book  | Kindle it!
  • Killer (1952) | Buy this book  | Kindle it!
  • Pursuit (1952; non-Janson?)
  • Vengeance (1953)
  • Suspense (1952)
  • Torment (1953) | Buy this book  | Kindle it!
  • Amok (1953; non-Janson)
  • SERIES FIVE
  • Nyloned Avenger (1953)
  • Silkened Menace (1953)
  • THE SPECIALS
  • Auctioned (1952)
  • Persian Pride (1952)
  • Desert Fury (1953)
  • One Man in His Time (1953)
  • Deadly Mission (1955)
  • The Unseen Assassin (1956)
  • THE GOLD STAR SERIES (1963-65)
  • Kill Her with Passion (1963)
  • Lover (1963)
  • Brazen Seductress (1963)
  • A Nice Way to Die (1963
  • It’s Bedtime Baby! (1964)
  • Hell’s Angels (1964)
  • Hot House (1964)
  • Passionate Playmates (1964)
  • Her Weapon Is Passion (1964)
  • Cold Dead Coed (1964)
  • Fanny (1964)
  • Expectant Nymph (1964)
  • The Exotic Seductress (1964)
  • The Sexy Vixen (1964)
  • The Affairs of Paula (1965)
  • A Nympho Named Silvia (1965)
  • Becky (1965)
  • THE REST (1953-71)
  • Avenging Nymph (1953) | Buy this book
  • Corruption (1953)
  • Contraband (1955)
  • 48 Hours (1955)
  • Menace (1955)
  • Tomorrow and a Day (1955)
  • Framed (1955)
  • Untamed (1955)
  • One Against Time (1955/1956)
  • The Big Lie (1956)
  • Cactus (1956)
  • Devil’s Highway (1956)
  • Escape (1956)
  • Hell’s Angels (1956)
  • Strange Destiny (1956)
  • They Die Alone (1956)
  • Bewitched (1957)
  • Sinister Rapture (1957)
  • Enemy of Men (1957)
  • Hellcat (1957)
  • Sinister Rapture (1957)
  • Sweet Fury (1957)
  • Sugar and Vice (1958)
  • Amorous Captive (1958)
  • Don’t Scare Easy (1958)
  • Flight from Fear (1958)
  • Hate As Above (1958)
  • Lose This Gun (1958)
  • Mistress of Fear (1958)
  • Situation—Grave! (1958)
  • Kill This Man (1958)
  • All Tramps Are Trouble (1959)
  • Invasion (1959)
  • Obsession (1959)
  • Torrid Temptress (1959)
  • Sultry Avenger (1959)
  • Silken Snare (1959)
  • Jack Spot (1959)
  • Bad Girl (1959)
  • Torrid Temptress (1959)
  • Wild Girl (1959)
  • Cupid Turns Killer (1960)
  • Beloved Traitor (1960)
  • Come Quickly, Honey (1960)
  • Hell of a Dame! (1960)
  • Cool Sugar (1960)
  • Quiet Waits the Grave (1960)
  • Passionate Waif (1960)
  • Secret Session (1960)
  • Sentence for Sin (1960)
  • Cutie on Call (1960)
  • This Hood for Hire (1960)
  • Ripe for Rapture (1960)
  • Ecstasy (1960)
  • Slaves of Seduction (1960)
  • This Wicked Sex (1960)
  • Break for a Lovely (1961)
  • Crowns Can Kill (1961)
  • She Sleeps to Conquer (1961)
  • Delicious Danger (1961)
  • Reluctant Hostess (1961)
  • Suddenly It’s Sin (1961)
  • Venus Makes Three (1961)
  • Scent from Heaven (1961)
  • Destination Dames (1961)
  • Downtown Doll (1961)
  • Fireball (1961)
  • Hell’s Belles (1961)
  • Short-Term Wife (1961)
  • Prey for a Newshawk (1961)
  • Outcast (1961)
  • Janson, Go Home (1961)
  • Lady, Lie Low (1961)
  • Late Night Revel (1961)
  • Master Mind (1961)
  • Angel Astray (1962)
  • Beauty and the Beat (1962)
  • Blood Bath (1962)
  • Grape Vine (1962)
  • Honey Take Me (1962)
  • Chicago Chick (1962)
  • Nymph in the Night (1962)
  • Uncover Agent (1962)
  • Uncommon Market (1962)
  • Twist for Two (1962)
  • Vagabond Vamp (1962)
  • Way Out Wanton (1962)
  • Counter-Feat (1962)
  • Savage Sequel (1962)
  • Run for Lover (1962)
  • Crime on My Hands (1962)
  • Take This Sweetie (1962)
  • Rave for a Roughneck (1962)
  • Play It Casual (1962)
  • Dig Those Heels (1962)
  • Exclusive (1962)
  • Honey for Me (1962)
  • Like Lethal (1962)
  • Like Crazy (1962)
  • Like Poison (1962)
  • Kill Me for Kicks (1962)
  • Go with a Jerk (1962)
  • She Wolf (1962)
  • Brand Image (1963)
  • Dateline Darlene (1963)
  • Dateline Debbie (1963)
  • Strange Ritual (1963)
  • Dateline Diane (1963)
  • Visit from a Broad (1963)
  • Daughter of Shame (1963)
  • Fast Buck (1963)
  • Passion Pact (1963)
  • Heartache (1963)
  • V for Vitality (1963)
  • Hilary’s Terms (1963)
  • Playgirl (1963)
  • Second String (1963)
  • Nerve Centre (1963)
  • Hot Line (1963)
  • The Love Makers (1963)
  • I for Intrigue (1963)
  • Sensuality (1963)
  • Fan Fare (1964)
  • Top Ten (1964)
  • Flower of Desire (1964)
  • Tigress (1964)
  • A Girl in Hand (1964)
  • Voodoo Violence (1964)
  • Will-Power (1964)
  • Crime Beat Crisis (1964)
  • Depravity (1964)
  • Design for Dupes (1964)
  • The Dish Ran Away (1964)
  • Doctor Fix (1964)
  • Double Take (1964)
  • Limbo Lover (1964)
  • Pattern of Rape (1964)
  • Square One (1964)
  • Lake Loot (1964)
  • Soft Cargo (1964)
  • Sex Angle (1964)
  • That Brain Again (1964)
  • The Love Secretaries (1964)
  • The Last Lady (1964)
  • Abomination (1965)
  • Berlin Briefing (1965)
  • Junk Market (1965)
  • Tail Sting (1965)
  • Sweet Talk (1965)
  • Lust for Vengeance (1965)
  • Flashpoint (1965)
  • Backlash of Infamy (1965)
  • Jazz Jungle (1965)
  • Catch Me a Renegade (1965)
  • The Devil and the Deep (1965)
  • Missile Mob (1965)
  • Why Should Sylvia? (1965)
  • Say It with Candy (1965)
  • Roxy by Proxy (1965)
  • Model in Mayhem (1965)
  • Furtive Flame (1965)
  • Bid for Beauty (1966)
  • The Big H (1966)
  • Darling Delinquent (1966)
  • Dead Certainty (1966)
  • Make Mine Mink (1966)
  • Escalation (1966)
  • F.EUD. (1966)
  • Mayfair Slayride (1966)
  • Nefarious Quest (1966)
  • Helldorado (1966)
  • Krush (1966)
  • Liquor is Quicker (1966)
  • Make Mine Mink (1966)
  • Mayfair Slayride (1966)
  • Nefarious Quest (1966)
  • Casino Strip (1967)
  • Deadly Horse-Race (1967)
  • Hell Brood (1967)
  • One-Way Split (1967)
  • Same Difference (1967)
  • Take Two Blondes (1967)
  • The Young Wolves (1967)
  • Ladybirds Are In (1967)
  • Physical Attraction (1967)
  • Riviera Showdown (1967)
  • Zero Take All (1967)
  • Operation Obliterate (1967)
  • Casinopoly (1967)
  • Crunch (1968)
  • Same Difference (1968)
  • The Young Wolves (1968)
  • Love-In and Lamentation (1968)
  • Micro Kill (1968)
  • Shalom, My Love (1968)
  • Sprung! (1968)
  • Cat’s Paw (1969)
  • Covering Fire (1969)
  • Globe Probe (1969)
  • The Spy in My Bed (1969)
  • The Big Round Bed (1970)
  • Frame and Fortune (1970)
  • Infiltration (1970)
  • Lament for a Lover (1970)
  • The Long Arm (1970)
  • Twilight Tigress (1970)
  • Ultimate Deterrent (1970)
  • Villon of the Piece (1970)
  • Caribbean Caper (1971)
  • Grass Widow (1971)
  • The Kay Assignation (1971)
  • The Liz Assignation (1971)

SHORT STORIES

  • “Double Double Cross” (1951, Underworld; by Stephen D. Frances)
  • “The Dead Guy” (1952, Underworld; by Stephen D. Frances)
  • “Deadly Mission” (1953, Deadly Mission; by Stephen D. Frances)

COLLECTIONS & OMNIBUS EDITIONS

  • When Dames Get Tough: With Scarred Faces and Other Rarities (2017) | Buy this book  | Kindle it!
    Includes When Dames Get Tough, Scarred Faces and Kitty Takes the Rap, plus two rare short stories. Intro by Steve Holland.

ALSO OF INTEREST

RELATED LINKS

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
Published

Leave a Reply