Ed And Evan

In 1954 an unknown writer named Evan Hunter published The Blackboard Jungle, the story of a teacher and his students at an inner city industrial school, based on Hunter's own experiences. The book was an immediate hit, and a year later spawned a movie that was even more influential; Bill Haley's "Rock Around The Clock" played over the opening credits, ushering in the Rock Age.

Two years later an unknown writer named Ed McBain published Copy Hater, the first novel in what became known as the "87th Precinct" series. Cop Hater was also made into a movie, and two other movies followed by 1960, and then a television show, but the series grew in popularity gradually.

What do these two men have in common? They are, of course, one and the same.

Evan Hunter was born Salvatore Lombino in New York City. He legally changed his name in the early 50s on the advice of his agent, who suggested that his given name was too ethnic and hard to pronounce. He'd begun writing while serving in the Navy in World War II; after returning to New York he worked at several jobs, including a brief stint as a teacher, before becoming an assistant to agent Scott Meredith. He sold a few stories and a children's book called Find The Feathered Serpent before hitting it big.

Hunter settled into the life of a respected mainstream novelist, writing historical fiction (The Chisholms) and character-driven drama (Strangers When We Meet), as well as returning to the subject of juvenile delinquency in A Matter Of Conviction (filmed as The Young Savages). He also did some movie work, most famously for Alfred Hitchcock on The Birds.

In the late 50s Pocket Books, concerned over the advancing age of Perry Mason creator Earl Stanley Gardner, was looking for a new writer to start a new mystery series. Hunter agreed, and again his agent had some good advice: use a pseudonym. Concerned that mainstream readers would look down on a writer of detective fiction, he created Ed McBain. McBain proceeded to create something never seen before, a series of ultra-realistic novels about police work, featuring an ensemble cast. Thus was created the police procedural.

In the middle 1980s, Hunter the serious novelist had met with disappointing sales of several of his new books, and began to put more energy into his McBain books, adding length, depth, and complexity, both in terms of plot and characterization. The popularity of the series soared, as McBain added legions of new fans to those he'd accumulated over twenty five years.

Now, after keeping up separate personas for almost fifty years, Hunter and McBain have written a book together. Candyland tells the story of Benjamin Thorpe, an architect from California, on his last night in New York. His desperate attempts to find release reveal the depths of his sexual obsession to all - eventually even to himself. The next day, the cops of the 87th investigate the murder of a prostitute, and all clues point back to Thorpe.

Hunter and McBain have differing styles; Hunter takes his time, drawing the reader in, slowly peeling away the psychological layers to his characters. It's the inner lives of his characters that drives his stories. McBain, on the other hand, is terse and crisp, concerned with facts and actions. His books crackle right along, rather than lingering. The author has even admitted his writing styles differ. He writes slower and more thoughfully as Hunter; as McBain he hammers out the prose.

Candyland will most likely be the last collaboration between the two, but neither is planning on retirement. McBain has said that although he's got a title for a final 87th Precinct novel, Exit, he's afraid to write it for fear he might get hit by a bus. It's possible there may be more cross pollination, not uncommon among those who write under several names (one of Donald Westlake's pseudonyms once blurbed another one's book!), but even if these two were to have a falling out, we'll see plenty more from each.