by Moe Zilla

Created on: February 17, 2008   Last Updated: February 18, 2008

"Naked Came the Stranger" was one of the most bizarre literary experiments ever. It was written by 24 different writers in 1969, each describing a different romantic encounter with a predatory talk show host named Gillian Blake. But what began as a practical joke became a strange and fascinating book.

A real-life newspaper columnist complained books became bestsellers solely because they contained lots of sexy scenes. And then he set out to prove it, along with 23 co-conspirators from his newspaper (Newsday). He instructed them to emphasize sex in their part of the book (and avoid anything that would approach literary excellence). The resulting contributions were easily strung together with a clever premise. The female talk show host discovers her husband is cheating on her, and for revenge, she cheats on him - with the succession of men described in the book.

But his scheme was ultimately a little too successful, since his Newsday colleagues were all capable writers. Each chapter was preceded by a long excerpt of banter from the talk show, which effectively introduced the themes in the upcoming romantic encounter. The writers obviously felt they couldn't introduce new characters without describing their personalities and adding details about their lives. And with changing social values, romantic encounters were a legitimate subject of inquiry in the late 1960s, as evidenced by novels by Philip Roth and John Updike. When the New York Times published an article revealing the hoax, the book drew national interest, and reached the bestseller list within three weeks.

The book also drew attention for the wrong reasons. Its sensationalistic cover shows a naked woman (from behind) next to a line of tally marks written in lipstick. One rumor hinted that a major literary author had participated on the book, which made it possible to wonder if the book's thoughtful character descriptions were written by Norman Mailer or John Updike. Finally, the sexy book was attributed to "Penelope Ashe," a pseudonym assigned to the sister-in-law of Newsday columnist, Mike McGrady. She made the necessary personal appearances to get the project off the ground, but audiences of the 1960s were intrigued by the thought of such a wildly sexual book being written by a female author.

In the end, the book really did deliver what its promotional copy promised. For better or worse, "Naked Came the Stranger" really did become "the year's most talked-about book."

Learn more about this author, Moe Zilla.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.