Hank Janson

Hank Janson was the pseudonym adopted by author Stephen D Frances (pictured) when he created the Janson character and wrote the first of the books, a novella entitled When Dames Get Tough, in 1946.

The name seemed to him to have the right hardboiled American ring to it in fact, Hank was chosen as the forename mainly because it rhymed with Yank!

Frances went on to write all of the classic era (1946-1953) Hank Janson books (bar perhaps one or two, over which experts disagree), and many of the later ones too, although almost all of the post-1959 novels (the last was published in 1971) were the work of different authors and of distinctly inferior quality.