Hi from Yazz (David Roger) Allen '66 (YazzAllen@Yahoo.Com)!

Here's an essay I wrote about "Underground Antiochiana," which means controversial (as opposed to socially acceptable and non-controversial) history about Antioch College, founded in 1852 by Horace Mann in Yellow Springs, Ohio, USA.....America's greatest college in history!

Some would disagree about that, but...read on!

Antiochiana includes the adventures and accomplishments of alumni and community members who explored unapproved solutions to social problems, did unusual and controversial things not universally cheered and praised by acceptable society.

This "Underground Antiochiana" is interesting, revealing (both about Antioch College and the large society in which it functions, and which Antioch College and its alumni have always served in ways other colleges have not), and deserves attention and recollection when the incredible instances of Antioch College history are recalled and examples of it examined.

CAMPUS TRAMP (1960 Nightstand Books) by "Andrew Shaw" is a famous example but not the only one.

Lawrence Block '60, now a famous millionaire mystery writer based in New York City (he'll be 70 years old next year) wrote the book CAMPUS TRAMP under the pseudonym "Andrew Shaw" which name belonged to the Hamling/Greenleaf Publishing Company of New York City which specialized in soft-core porn paperback books published in the late 1950's and 1960's (Nightstand Books, Midnight Readers, Bedside Books, etc.). Lawrence Block was the first of several "Andrew Shaws" and accounted by many as the best.

According to a biographical profile article (available on the Internet) written by Lynn Munroe titled THE FIRST ANDREW SHAW, Block dropped out of Antioch, went to NYC, hooked up with the Hamling/Greenleaf Publishing Company, and said that he wrote two adult novels a month for three years. Block '60, continued to write using pseudonyms until 1975 when he was in his late 30's (he was born in 1938), and became an established, and widely respected and praised author of mystery books, often winning the coveted "Edgar" Mystery Books award for his successful novels in the years that followed.

I met a now retired Library Of Congress lifer during Washington DC Antioch Alumni Chapter meetings in recent years who recalled being friends with Laawrence Block at Antioch College in the late 1950's and keeping then young Block company at the now closed down "68 Cafe" (famous all night eatery and coffee place for truckers which operated in Yellow Springs, Ohio during the 1950's and 60's). My Library Of Congress friend spoke of watching Block pen part of works he (Block) sent on to NYC publishers at the 68 cafe while the two guzzled coffee with tough truckers heading both North and South on Rt. 68 (main road from Cincinnati to Detroit).

CAMPUS TRAMP (Nightstand Book #1505 - 1959) was famous among Antioch College undergrads of my years (1962-66) at Antioch, and was once read in its entirety over the school radio station, WYSO-FM, then located on the second floor of the Antioch Union. Community Manager Steve Perry '66 and his then girlfriend Barbara "Bonnie" Beman '68 read the book aloud during late night broadcasts.

CAMPUS TRAMP introduces us to Clifton College in Ohio, a thinly veiled Antioch College, which biographer Lynn Munroe reminds us is the alma mater of Lawrence Block '60. The story takes place partly in Schwerner Hall. Munroe states that Block's roommate was named "Schwerner" (a Dean Of Students named "Steve Schwerner" during the Behrenbaum and Guskin years had finished at Antioch College in 1960, but the entire name "Steve Schwerner" isn't provided by Block biographyer Lyn Munroe).

Linda Shepherd and Ruth Hardy are "Clifton College" co-eds from the 50's whose adventures and travails are described in the Lawrence Block potboiler.

Later "Andrew Shaw" novels of fame following CAMPUS TRAMP included HIGH SCHOOL SEX CLUB, SIN HELLCAT, CROSSROADS OF LUST, LUST CAMPUS, and just plain TRAMP. The terrific cover art of these books (complete with early 60's Rosslyn Carter type hair styles on the lusty heroines of the stories) is available on the Internet, and worth taking a look at.

The cover art for CAMPUS TRAMP actually includes sort of a bastardized image of Antioch Hall (aka Main Building) at Antioch College with its familiar brick facade and matching towers, though without the noble proportions of the actual building. A 1950's couple are shown on the lawn in front of the building fully clothed but passionately interacting. The terrain is not at all as flat as the actual front campus.....much hillier with the large college building in the distance behind the amorous couple sort of up on a hill looking down Iin disaproval?) at the Clifton College couple.

Unerground Antiochiana is interesting and needs to be given the respect it deserves.

CAMPUS TRAMP is famous, and well known to Antioch College history enthusiasts, but perhaps sanitized by the financial and literary success of its author, Lawrence Block '70, who went on to become rich (which washes away so many sins) and to stock public libraries and bookstores across the land (and the world) with mystery books of fame.

Less acceptable but still noteworthy accomplishments of Antiochians over the decades and beyond also need to be explored and gathered by Antiochiana enthusiasts. Yesterday's and today's scandal can become tomorrow's clue to some important new direction, and evidence of accomplishment ignored by the past, but praised rightly by the future.

Best always,
Yazz (David Roger) Allen '66 (YazzAllen@Yahoo.Com)