We were very fortunate three summers ago to have an author event with Donald E. Westlake, aka Richard Stark, Tucker Coe, and many other pseudonyms. Westlake’s wife Abby Adams Westlake was also in attendance and she is also an author. They signed books during the author event and Donald was so gracious to sign my personal collection of his books. I have to admit my favorite Westlake books are from his Richard Stark and Tucker Coe series and his early Westlake titles under his own name.
The only books that Donald wouldn’t sign were three books that one would categorize as sleaze novels that he wrote early in his career to raise money for his family. He chuckled when I showed him the three paperbacks I had in my collection.
We were quite hearbroken when we found out last December that Westlake had passed away. We remembered the lovely evening that we spent with the Westlakes and our customers. We still have some signed books from the event and they are treasures for customers who purchase them.
This week Hard Case Crime announced that next April it will publish MEMORY, a novel that Westlake originally wrote in the early 1960s. It was never published because Westlake’s literary agent couldn’t sell the book at that time, according to his long-time friend Lawrence Block.
It is our hope at Kingdom Books that the Westlake family finds a few more unpublished manuscripts in Donald’s file.
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