This photo cover for David Williams’ juvie delinquent novel Basement Gang is one we’ve admired for years. Enticed by its colors and out-of-focus foreground figure, and finally finding it at a good price, we snagged a copy. It was originally published in 1953 by Complete Novel Magazine, with the above edition coming the same year from Intimate Novels.
The book is a cautionary tale told in detailed if clinical style following Bronx born Kathie Melton, who out of boredom dumps her solid boyfriend Hank, is lured through the forbidden doorway of the local underground club Comets, and is soon drunk, drugged, and de-virginized to the limits of her ripe young body.
Kathie is willing to repeatedly indulge in all these activities, but she hates that the hepcats with whom she’s hooked up are criminals. Hey, sitting around being disaffected all day requires some sort of funding. Kathie rolls with the life of petty crime, however when a romantic rival sets her up to be beaten and (almost) raped by a dangerous thug, the square life starts to look good again. But leaving Comets and Co. isn’t simple.
As juvenile delinquent fiction goes, Williams did a good job with this one, even if his prose doesn’t invite deep emotional involvement. We suppose his goal was to be credible rather than literary. But why not both? We think it was his only novel, but just in case we’ll keep our eyes open for more.
