I came across this today and I thought it was interesting. My question: Does anyone remember this book and did you read it?
Naked Came The Stranger
Newsday columnist Mike McGrady was convinced that standards of literary and artistic taste were plummeting rapidly in the United States, driven down by a relentless flood of media sensationalism that catered to the lowest common denominator. So he decided to design an experiment to test the depths of the American cultural morass. He would commission the writing of a novel lacking in any redeeming features: no plot or character development, no social insight, and definitely no verbal skill. It would possess only one feature that could possibly hold a reader's attention: lots of kinky sex scenes. In fact, it would have a minimum of two sex scenes per chapter (which sounds a bit low by current standards). If the book was a success, it would prove that the American public completely lacked all standards of taste.
The plot of the novel, such as it was, involved a suburban housewife who hatched a plan to sleep with all the married men in her neighborhood in order to get back at her husband for having an affair. McGrady recruited twenty-four fellow Newsday staff members to help him with the writing. Each of them took a separate chapter. They gave the resulting hodge-podge the suggestive title Naked Came the Stranger.
The book went on sale in 1969. It was heavily promoted and given a sexy cover featuring a naked woman. McGrady's attractive sister-in-law was enlisted to play the role of the book's fictitious author, Penelope Ashe. She played it to the hilt, appearing in interviews wearing low-cut dresses and crooning phrases about the joys of sexual liberation.
To no one's surprise, the book sold well. But soon some of the collaborators began to feel guilty about the money they were making from the deception and leaked the story to the press. The resulting publicity, of course, just made the book an even bigger seller.
And if McGrady was hoping that his experiment would convince Americans to change their low-brow ways, he was mistaken. Readers just shrugged their shoulders at the hoax and kept on buying even more of the racy romances that they loved.
Naked Came the Stranger subsequently inspired a slew of other collaborative novels to be written, many of which adopted versions of the 'Naked Came The...' title in homage to the original. Examples include Naked Came the Manatee, Naked Came the Phoenix, and Naked Came the Sasquatch.
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/images/stranger.jpg
Naked Came The Stranger
Newsday columnist Mike McGrady was convinced that standards of literary and artistic taste were plummeting rapidly in the United States, driven down by a relentless flood of media sensationalism that catered to the lowest common denominator. So he decided to design an experiment to test the depths of the American cultural morass. He would commission the writing of a novel lacking in any redeeming features: no plot or character development, no social insight, and definitely no verbal skill. It would possess only one feature that could possibly hold a reader's attention: lots of kinky sex scenes. In fact, it would have a minimum of two sex scenes per chapter (which sounds a bit low by current standards). If the book was a success, it would prove that the American public completely lacked all standards of taste.
The plot of the novel, such as it was, involved a suburban housewife who hatched a plan to sleep with all the married men in her neighborhood in order to get back at her husband for having an affair. McGrady recruited twenty-four fellow Newsday staff members to help him with the writing. Each of them took a separate chapter. They gave the resulting hodge-podge the suggestive title Naked Came the Stranger.
The book went on sale in 1969. It was heavily promoted and given a sexy cover featuring a naked woman. McGrady's attractive sister-in-law was enlisted to play the role of the book's fictitious author, Penelope Ashe. She played it to the hilt, appearing in interviews wearing low-cut dresses and crooning phrases about the joys of sexual liberation.
To no one's surprise, the book sold well. But soon some of the collaborators began to feel guilty about the money they were making from the deception and leaked the story to the press. The resulting publicity, of course, just made the book an even bigger seller.
And if McGrady was hoping that his experiment would convince Americans to change their low-brow ways, he was mistaken. Readers just shrugged their shoulders at the hoax and kept on buying even more of the racy romances that they loved.
Naked Came the Stranger subsequently inspired a slew of other collaborative novels to be written, many of which adopted versions of the 'Naked Came The...' title in homage to the original. Examples include Naked Came the Manatee, Naked Came the Phoenix, and Naked Came the Sasquatch.
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/images/stranger.jpg
