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Joseph Hansen
Joseph Hansen (19 July 1923 - 24 November 2004) was a prolific writer best known for a series of novels starring his most iconic creation, gay insurance investigator Dave Brandstetter. Most of his other books, starting with pulp fiction written in the 1960s under the pseudonym of James Colton, also focused on gay characters; Rose Brock was the name he used for two Gothic novels. Hansen also wrote poetry and taught writing workshops.
Hansen was married for over fifty years to lesbian writer Jane Bancroft, with whom he had one child. A homosexual activist from the 1960s - he disliked the word 'gay' - Hansen helped to found Los Angeles' first Gay Pride parade. condensed from wikipedia
The above photograph comes from an informative interview with Joseph Hansen on GayToday.com.
An early UK edition of Hansen's Fadeout, gives the following information:
"Joseph Hansen was born in Aberdeen, South Dakota. After a number of jobs, he read Nabokov's Invitation to a Beheading and started writing himself. He has written several Gothic potboilers, under different names, which have appeared in paperback, and he has published poetry and articles in Harper's, the New Yorker, the Atlantic and the Saturday Review. Fadeout is his first novel under his own name.
"Joseph Hansen and his wife live in Los Angeles, where he is one of the directors of the
Homosexual Information Center and assists in selling their magazine."
There does not seem to be a website that provides a complete biography or bibliography for Joseph Hansen. Please contact us if you can identify one.
The following titles, listed in order of first publication, are currently available from Arbery Books. Prices do not include postage and packing unless otherwise indicated.
Strange Marriage (as James Colton)
1965, 1st edition, Argyle Books, Los Angeles
Very Good, £17.50
"Randy Hale [is], outwardly the popular, young owner of Hale's Cafe in the village of
Pepper Tree. But at twenty-four, Randy is already a long-time member of the homosexual
world. This taut, frankly sensual novel begins with Randy's frantic search for a male lover to replace his beloved Corky who has left Randy for the more exciting 'gay' life of a large city. Randy's search for appeasement takes him down strange and dangerous pathways"
Fadeout (the first Dave Brandstetter) (first published 1970) 1972 1st UK edition, Harrap, London
Very Good, £8.00
"Brandstetter works hard, lives hard, but he is vulnerable too. He tackles his case at full steam, but carries with him the enormous grief and emptiness which follows when a man loses his life
partner - his was an interior decorator called Rod, a laughing boy-man whose death leaves Brandstetter restless, disturbed and bitter."
Todd (as James Colton)
1971, 1st edition, Olympia Press, London & Boston
Very Good, £20.00
"Todd was white and Felix was black and Felix's militant brother was determined that none of his family was ever going to be exploited by the whites, especially sexually. But that obstacle was insignificant compared to the age-old enemy that transcends race and time: the re-appearance of a former lover, and the agonizing struggle between the present and the past."
Death Claims (Dave Brandstetter)
1973 1st edition, Harrap, London
Very Good, £8.00
"John Oats and his embryonic-actor son Peter; April Stannard who lives with them; Wade Cochran, movie star famous for his impeccable morals; his religious mother; Charles Norwood, bookseller and devoted family friend; and a cop called Jesus-Maria Campos.
Oats Senior's scarred and drugged body is found washed up on the beach after a night of storm - a happening worth $20,000 to his son, who should benefit from the insurance money. But Peter Oats is missing . . . "
The Man Everybody Was Afraid Of (Dave Brandstetter)
1978, 1st edition, Faber and Faber, London & Boston
Very Good, £7.50
"Tough, ruthless Ben Orton, police chief of a sunny little California beach town called La Caleta, had a gift for making enemies. So when he ended up dead with his skull smashed in, no one was too surprised. But when Cliff Kerlee, hot-tempered, gay-activist owner of a nursery, is jailed for the murder, Dave Brandstetter is sceptical."
Skinflick (Dave Brandstetter) (fist published 1979) 1980 1st UK edition, Faber and Faber, London & Boston
Very Good, £6.00
"Gerald Dawson was an angry little man who set out to change a world he feared and hated, and ended up murdered. The police are sure they've got the killer - the owner of a porno shop. But Dave Brandstetter, crack insurance investigator, won't but it. Where had Dawson been all night and what is scaring Dawson's wife and son? Why is Dawson's business parnert in such a panic to get rid of his files? Who is the young bearded stranger Dawson fought with the in church car park? If Dawson was a born-again Christian, whose were the porno magazines Dawson's son so frantically tried to burn?"
Job's Year (first published 1983) 1985, Plume, San Francisco
Good, £3.50
(including UK p&p)
"Oliver Jewett has reached his 58th year, an age that no longer accepts self-delusion or flattery. It is his time of truth, the time to reflect on disappointments of his life with clear-eyed irony and scaled-down dreams. Jewett must come to grips with his acting career, which now hangs in perilous balance between stardom and oblivion. He must examine his past, the family he has fled from and the men and women he has loved. He must face his present, the lover he feels himself losing, the young man who tempts him so dangerously. He must do do what he has to do to survive."
Pretty Boy Dead
1984, 1st edition thus , Gay Sunshine Press, San Francisco
Very Good, £5.00
first published in 1968 as Known Homosexual, reissued in 1977 as Known to Himself; revised for this edition
"Scorned by his family, defeated by society, Steve was at a major crossroads in his life. His marriage had gone sour, his hopes as a playwright dashed. Confused and friendless, Steve turned to pretty boy Coy Randol for love and support. But then Coy was found brutally murdered and there was only one person the police suspected: Steve. "
Steps Going Down
1985, 1st edition, Foul Play Press, Woodstock
Very Good, £6.50
"Frail old Stewart Moody is slowly dying, cared for Barryl Cutler, a handsome hustler who knows a good thing when he sees it. He cooks for the old man, bathes and dresses him, runs his thriving secretarial service. Sometimes he feels trapped, but Moody will dies some day and Cutler will inherit his business, property, life savings. It's worth the wait.
. . . Then he meets Chick Pelletier, a young, sunny-haired out of work actor and beach bum. And the next morning Stewart Moody lies dead on the floor of his bedroom, tangled in the plastic tube from his oxygen tank that kept him feebly alive."
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