The stranger came naked

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Naked came the stranger is a pulp novel written in 1969 by an author collective . The project was initiated as a hoax by Harvey Aronson (* 1929) and Mike McGrady (* October 4, 1933; † May 14, 2012) of the daily newspaper Newsday . The goal was to write an extremely bad book.

History of origin

In 1966, after reading trivial and trash literature, the journalist Mike McGrady had the idea of ​​having a team of authors write a sex novel of the poorest quality to prove that even the worst trash sells well. He was able to win twenty-five journalists from the Newsday newspaper, including five women, for the project. The authors pledged to write a disjointed book devoid of any literary quality. Within a week, each author had to submit a chapter for which they received a fee of $ 5,000 . The guideline McGrady was to emphasize sex scenes strongly and eradicate any literary quality. However, since McGrady initially devoted himself to reporting on the Vietnam War as a journalist , the book could not be completed until 1969. Some chapters were rejected and had to be revised because they were initially "too well written".

The authors included Pulitzer Prize winners Gene Goltz and Robert W. Greene, as well as William McIlwain Jr., George Vecsey and Marilyn Berger.

The book's author was named "Penelope Ashe," "a decent housewife from Long Island ." The alleged author depicted on the cover was McGrady's sister-in-law, Billie Young. She also appeared in public as Penelope Ashe and gave interviews.

The editor of the book was the controversial publisher Lyle Stuart .

McGrady turned down a $ 500,000 offer for a serialized novel.

action

The attractive Gillian Blake notices that her husband is cheating on her. She tries to get back at him by sleeping with as many other men as possible.

reception

As expected, the book was successful. 20,000 copies were sold within a few days. When McGrady and his authors disclosed the hoax a few weeks later, it resulted in sales of another 78,000 copies. The book was also marketed in the UK . It stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for 13 weeks and reached number 3 on November 2, 1969. In 1975 the work was made into a film by Radley Metzger (see Naked Came the Stranger ).

The book was first published in German in 1970 by Scherz Verlag . The book sold over 25,000 copies in Germany.

The book has been reprinted many times. The Village Voice weekly newspaper wrote in 2004 that it was "perfectly awful." A total of 400,000 copies of the book were sold.

McGrady's sister-in-law, Billie Young, later became a writer, using the pseudonym Penelope Ashe.

Comparable works

With I, Libertine , a literary hoax came onto the market in the USA as early as 1956. In 2004 a group of authors wrote the trash novel Atlanta Nights .

Book editions

  • Naked Came the Stranger . Lyle Stuart, New York 1969; Barricade Books, Fort Lee (NJ) 2004, ISBN 978-1-56980-262-5
  • The stranger came naked . Novel. Scherz, Bern 1970; Droemer Knaur, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-426-02561-2

literature

  • Mike McGrady: Stranger Than Naked or How to Write Dirty Books for Fun. Wyden, New York 1970.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Mike McGrady. In: The Daily Telegraph . June 4, 2012, accessed February 18, 2019 .
  2. ^ A b Anthony Ramirez: Lyle Stuart, Publisher of Renegade Titles, Dies at 83. In: New York Times. June 26, 2012, accessed February 18, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b Matt Schudel: Mike McGrady, journalist and leader of 'Naked Came the Stranger' spoof, dies. The Washington Post , May 15, 2012, accessed February 18, 2019 .
  4. ^ A b "Naked Came the Stranger": An Oral History. WNYC , June 8, 2017, accessed February 18, 2019 .
  5. ^ A b c d e Margalit Fox: Mike McGrady, Known for a Literary Hoax, Dies at 78. In: New York Times. May 14, 2012, accessed February 18, 2019 .
  6. ↑ "Bestseller / Handbook: Stranger Than Naked" in DER SPIEGEL 29/1970 of July 13, 1970, accessed on July 28, 2020.