Frank Lauria

I began writing in grade school. Always an avid reader I was drawn to poetry. In high school and college I published my work in the school paper and literary magazine. In 1958 I began reading poetry in The Seven Arts Cafe NY along with Beat heroes Ginsberg, Corso, Bremser and Kerouac. Despite being drafted into the Army I continued to read around Greenwich Village and one weekend two significant events occurred: I scored my first nickle bag of pot and I spent Sunday with Jack Kerouac. That day we smoked a joint and Jack taught me to observe which left a lasting impression. In 1960 I was discharged and moved to Boston where I met young folksinger Bob Dylan. In 1961 I joined the cast of A Passage to India and went to Broadway with the show. Now an actor I drove to Hollywood for a studio test which I failed miserably. However during that time I was awarded first prize for poetry by the Valley Writers Conference. I was in San Francisco when JFK was assassinated and drove back to New York.

In 1964 following the Beat trail I took a freighter to Tangier Morocco. That year I traveled to Italy, Greece, Alexandria, Baalbek Lebanon, Syria, and the island of Ischia. In 1967 I went to work as a copywriter at Bantam books and wrote my first novel Doctor Orient which was published in 1970. That year I moved to Tangier and later Rome, where I wrote Raga Six and Lady Sativa.

When I returned to New York in 1973 Raga Six was published and became and became an immediate bestseller. For next few years I lived in Tangier and Rome becoming friends with the great Paul Bowles. I returned to the USA in 1977 where I became involved with the underground NY art scene. In 1984 I met rock icon Marianne Faithfull who introduced me to my wife Ellen Smith. In 1991 Avon Books published the seventh Doctor Orient novel Blue Limbo. That same year I moved to San Francisco and entered a fresh artistic phase.

In 2000 I began a rap & roll band Uncle Frank and the Co-Defendants. Our final performance was in 2015 at the famed Hotel Utah. The album Lost in the Underground is available.

Rothco Press published the eighth Doctor Orient novel Demon Pope in 2014. That same year they published the original Max LeBlue novel Fog City Blues and will publish the third thriller in the series, Ice City Blues in 2021.

Author Photo by J. D. Boxley