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Hank Janson is both a fictional character and a pseudonym created by the English author Stephen Daniel Frances who died in 1989. Frances wrote a series of thrillers by, and often featuring, Hank Janson, beginning with When Dames Get Tough (1946). Many of the later "Hank Janson" novels were the work of other authors.
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The "Hank Janson" books
Hank Janson was the most popular and successful of British pulp fiction authors of the 1940s and 1950s. His books were violent "pseudo-American" thrillers sold in paperback editions featuring erotic cover art, and it is estimated that some five million copies were sold by 1954.
Recalling his childhood enthusiasm for Janson, British playwright Simon Gray recalled how "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."
In the 1950s, the authorities attempted a crack-down on allegedly obscene pulp literature, targeting the Janson books among others. Several of the Hank Janson novels were banned in the Republic of Ireland. In 1954 author, D. F. Crawley was prosecuted, only to be acquitted when it was discovered he no longer had rights to the Janson pseudonym.
Authors
partial listThe "Hank Janson" character
The Janson character in the novels was portrayed as a "tough Chicago reporter". Alternatively, in some of the novels, Janson is said to have been born in England, to have left the country in his teens, later obtaining American nationality and working as an assistant to a private detective.
