Ben Christopher was a pen name shared by Donald E. Westlake and Lawrence Block.
Below:
As ACT ONE: MURDER! – Beacon (Australia
) 157, no date. Scarce.
Hard Case Double HCC-069 - as by Lawrence Block writing as Ben Christopher. 1st hardcover edition, Subterranean Press 2012. With 69 BARROW STREET. Cover by Robert McGinnis. Two covers on this book, like an Ace Double.
11. WRITING AS JOHN DEXTER
MAN FOR RENT – Nightstand NB 1590, 1962. Collaboration by Lawrence Block and William Coons.
In 1993 I guessed that the first John Dexter book NO LONGER A VIRGIN was the third collaboration by Block and Westlake. Today we have learned I was wrong, SIN HELLCAT by Andrew Shaw was the third collaboration. And NO LONGER A VIRGIN was Donald E. Westlake's first Nightstand. Westlake never admitted this, it was revealed by his son after Westlake passed away. “John Dexter” quickly became a house name shared by all the Nightstand writers. Shaw's HIGH SCHOOL SEX CLUB was originally going to be the second Dexter, making Donald E. Westlake and Lawrence Block the first two of countless John Dexters.
As BUY BUY BABY by Jeremy Dunn – Reed Nightstand 4028, 1974.
Apparently Reed Nightstand changed the titles and bylines of some of their Nightstand reprints to avoid having to pay the authors royalties. Jeremy Dunn was their version of house name John Dexter.
