Design for Debauchery

A dangerously intimate, explosive pulp fiction classic, a landmark novel banned in 1960 and finally back in print for the first time in decades. This was a strange family – they had wealth, prestige and the stature befitting their heritage. Yet beneath the veneer of respectability, smouldered a hidden evil. Why was the father so intent on securing the seduction of his own son? Why did the hauntingly beautiful Robin have a look of fear in her eyes?

Before Eric Spokane could find all the answers and feel his way through the dark labyrinth of conflicting emotional entanglements, there was bitterness and shock and the violence of many sins.

Originally published under the title Fear of Incest in 1960, and later retitled for a subsequent release. The book was one of 12 by March Hastings that were deemed unmailable by the US Postal Services, which called the books obscene, lewd, lascivious and indecent. For selling copies of this book, Samuel Dodd Williamson, a Los Angeles bookseller, was arrested, jailed and fined for criminal obscenity, a case that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, who upheld the conviction.