Naked Came the Stranger
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The book Naked Came the Stranger was a literary hoax perpetrated by several well-known writers and critics in 1969.
Mike McGrady, a well-known Newsday columnist, was convinced that popular American literary culture had become so base that even a poorly-written, literarily-vacant work could succeed if enough sex was thrown in. In order to test his theory, McGrady recruited an all-male team of fellow hoaxers to collaborate on a sexually explicit novel with no literary or social value whatsoever. Writing under the pseudonym Penelope Ashe (portrayed by McGrady's sister-in-law for photographs and meetings with publishers), the group wrote the book as a deliberately inconsistent and mediocre hodge-podge, with each chapter written by a different author. Some of the chapters had to be heavily edited, because they were originally too well written.
In the novel, a suburban housewife named Gillian Blake becomes angry at her unfaithful husband, and plans to have sex with every married man in her Long Island neighborhood.
Fulfilling McGrady's cynical expectations, the book was wildly successful. As sales continued to increase, many of the co-authors felt guilty about the large amounts of money they were earning, and went public. In a most unusual display of bravado, the male authors gave their "confession" on The David Frost Show, after being introduced as "Penelope Ashe" and walking out on stage, single file, as the orchestra played the song "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody".
The book eventually spent one week on the New York Times Best Seller list, although by that time its authorship was common knowledge. It is unclear how much of the book's success was due to its content and how much to publicity about its unusual origin.
Subsequently, McGrady and his collaborators were approached about writing a sequel; they refused.
The authors included the ringleader Mike McGrady, John Cummings, Harvey Aaronson, Bill McIlwain, Robert Wiemer, George Vecsey, and Robert Greene.
The novel was adapted into a porn film by Radley Metzger in 1975.
A group of Florida authors led by Carl Hiassen used a similar formula in the novel Naked Came the Manatee.
A group of science fiction authors led by James D. Macdonald used a similar formula in a hoax perpetrated against vanity publisher PublishAmerica in the novel Atlanta Nights. The working title of Atlanta Nights was Naked Came the Badfic.
A group of female mystery writers used the same formula for their book Naked Came the Phoenix.
