14 Facts About Lawrence Block

Lawrence Block has written in the genres of crime, mystery, and suspense fiction for more than half a century, releasing over 100 books.

Lawrence Block was born June 24,1938 in Buffalo, New York, where he was raised.

Lawrence Block attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, but left before graduating.

Lawrence Block's first novel was a lesbian fiction titled Strange Are The Ways of Love, written under the name Lesley Evans.

In 2016, Lawrence Block reissued this novel with a new title Shadows, under another of his pseudonyms, Jill Emerson.

The first novel to be published under Lawrence Block's name was Grifter's Game.

Lawrence Block has lived in New York City for decades, setting most of his fiction there, and has come to be very closely associated with the city.

Lawrence Block has three daughters, Amy Reichel, Jill Block and Alison Pouliot, from an earlier marriage.

Lawrence Block was a regular guest on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, appearing in eight of Ferguson's ten seasons as host of the program.

The series was set to end on that note, but an idle promise Lawrence Block had made to supply an editor friend with an original Scudder short resulted in "By the Dawn's Early Light", a story set during the character's drinking days, but told from the perspective of a recovering alcoholic.

Lawrence Block expanded on that with 1986's When the Sacred Ginmill Closes, which proved not only one of the more literary entries, but a favorite of the author and his fans.

Besides Scudder and Rhodenbarr, Lawrence Block has written eight novels about Evan Tanner, an adventurer and accidental revolutionary who, as a result of an injury sustained in the Korean War, cannot sleep.

Lawrence Block collects non-US issues, prior to 1940, with a particular interest in stamps from former colonies of the French Empire.

Lawrence Block has written dozens of short stories over the years, and he is the only four-time winner of the Edgar Award for Best Short Story.