johndexter

The Novels of John Dexter

Okay, truthfully now … if you had penned some of the titles listed below, would you really want your name to go down in literary history as being the author? “John Dexter” is only one of the numerous pseudonyms used by the friendly folks at Greenleaf Publications, and it was used throughout the many labels mentioned in the previous “Oddity.”

My reference books (see the BookScans Reference Library) insinuate that the average fee for writing a book for Greenleaf in the early sixties was about a thousand dollars; which, if you stop and think about it, was enough to pay a month’s rent, buy some groceries, and maybe have enough left over to take your honey out on a date or two. In other words, if a struggling writer in Southern California (or elsewhere) needed to make ends meet, this was certainly a way to get a little quick cash … anonymously … while working to write that “legitimate” novel or screenplay.

Listed below are some of the most-used Greenleaf pseudonyms and a list of authors who sometimes used them.

HOWEVER, just because an author is known to have used a particular pseudonym does NOT mean that he wrote extensively under that name. For example, one recognized “John Dexter” author was Lawrence Block, but he (so far as I know) has only acknowledged one soft-porn novel under that pseudonym (it’s Midnight Reader 471, Shame Dame, shown below). There may well have been others, but we’re probably never going to know for sure. Even so, this will give you some idea about the sheer number of writers who engaged in putting out this sort of literature. The identities of the true authors for the vast, vast majority of these books are unknown.

The Novels of John Dexter (by book number)

(Note: some of these may not be Greenleaf books. The authors carried the pseudonym over to other publishers.)

Adult Books 405, 409, 415, 418, 427, 459, 467, 474, 483, 487, 499, 1547, 1623, 1635, 1646, 1673

Candid Reader 903, 913, 926, 937, 946, 951, 955, 958, 964, 980, 988, 998, 1008, 1011, 1018, 1034

Companion 501, 509, 514, 517, 521, 527, 530, 534, 542, 567, 571, 574, 579, 584, 586, 590, 638, 666, 670, 750

Ember Library EL921, 925, 932, 937, 941, 946, 949, 311, 315, 320, 323, 327, 339, 343, 345, 350, 354, 369, 379, 382, 385, 389, 393

Evening Reader 705, 711, 715, 718, 723, 731, 736, 740, 744, 748, 750, 756, 757, 766, 772, 787, 792, 796, 1204, 1205, 1212, 1213, 1219, 1224, 1227, 1232, 1235, 1238, 1245, 1251, 1253, 1259, 1261

Idle Hour 402, 408, 412, 413, 418, 425, 432, 433, 444, 445, 452, 454, 458, 468, 472, 473, 480, 484, 488, 490, 495, 502, 508, 509, 514, 520, 521

Late Hour 702, 705, 710, 716, 717, 724, 725, 729, 744, 746, 751, 756

Leisure Library 610, 614, 619, 622, 627, 632, 638, 641, 647, 649, 655, 659, 664, 655, 659, 664, 667, 671, 675, 692, 1103, 1106, 1113, 1115, 1122, 1127, 1131, 1136, 1148, 1152, 1165, 1171, 1175, 1178, 1175, 1178, 1182, 1189, 1195, 1197, 1202, 1205, 1209, 1214, 1219

Midnight Reader 415, 417, 421, 428, 455, 460, 471, 478, 483, 492

Nightstand Book 1513, 1536, 1549, 1556, 1568, 1572, 1576, 1585, 1590, 1594, 1600, 1606, 1615, 1626, 1653, 1706, 1724, 1728, 1731, 1735, 1739, 1743, 1747, 1752, 1753, 1762, 1765, 1776, 1780, 1782, 1790, 1795, 1796, 1798, 1807, 1811, 1814, 1818, 1824, 1830, 1833, 1839, 1841, 1848, 1855, 1863, 1868, 1870, 1879, 1887, 1898, 1905, 1930, 1934, 1940, 1946, 1951, 1974, 1990

Reed Nightstand 3013

Nitetime 409, 434, 475

Pillar Book 823, 825, 831, 835, 843, 846, 851

Pleasure Book 101, 107, 111, 113, 117, 121, 125, 134, 140, 143, 145, 155, 158, 167, 170, 177, 186, 190, 206

Sundown Reader 503, 508, 512, 516, 520, 524, 526, 530, 535, 539, 542, 545, 556, 558, 564, 567, 569, 576, 577, 583, 586, 592, 593, 598, 603, 605, 612, 614, 617, 621

SOME of the Known “John Dexter” Authors

Lawrence Block, Marion Zimmer Bradley, John Coleman, Arthur Jean Cox, Richard Curtis, Harvey Hornwood, Al James, William Knoles, Jack Moskovitz, Milo Perichitch, Arthur Plotnik, Robert Silverberg, George Henry Smith, Donald Westlake, Hugh Zachary.

Others of these “mass market sleaze” pseudonyms included J.X. Williams, Alan Marshall, Andrew Shaw, Don Holliday, and many others.

SOME of the Known authors for pseudonym “J.X. Williams”

(There were over a hundred books attributed to that name)

John Jakes, Jordan James, William Knoles, Miles Eric Ludwig, Jack Moskovitz, Andrew J. Offutt, Milo Perichitch, George Henry Smith, Edward Wood, Jr.