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Summer Hotel
First eBook edition, with 15 period photographs.
"The needle.
The book.
And the money.
They all seemed associated with an unyielding tie, and I couldn't quite understand it. I had his wife, or as much of her as I could get under the circumstances. In some way, she could work things out and we could eventually marry. It wasn't as though it was the end of the world or anything like that. There was always tomorrow. And tomorrow would be better.
I had another drink.
I cursed.
The drinks hadn't helped.
Nothing helped.
My whole body felt like a mess of silage being pulled into a huge grinder. I needed her so badly, I wanted her so much, and there was this guy George standing in my way. Or was he? Who was George, anyhow? He was nothing but a big fat slob with sugar in his blood. She didn't love him. She had never loved him. He had forced her into the marriage, probably for the ten grand she'd inherited from her father, and nothing built that way ever lasted."
Mackenzie Osmund is a man torn between what's right and what's in his heart. Set in the Catskills in 1958, this is another potboiler from the King of the Naughty Noir, Orrie Hitt, author of "Virgins No More," "The Love Season," "Dirt Farm," and countless other scorchers.
"The needle.
The book.
And the money.
They all seemed associated with an unyielding tie, and I couldn't quite understand it. I had his wife, or as much of her as I could get under the circumstances. In some way, she could work things out and we could eventually marry. It wasn't as though it was the end of the world or anything like that. There was always tomorrow. And tomorrow would be better.
I had another drink.
I cursed.
The drinks hadn't helped.
Nothing helped.
My whole body felt like a mess of silage being pulled into a huge grinder. I needed her so badly, I wanted her so much, and there was this guy George standing in my way. Or was he? Who was George, anyhow? He was nothing but a big fat slob with sugar in his blood. She didn't love him. She had never loved him. He had forced her into the marriage, probably for the ten grand she'd inherited from her father, and nothing built that way ever lasted."
Mackenzie Osmund is a man torn between what's right and what's in his heart. Set in the Catskills in 1958, this is another potboiler from the King of the Naughty Noir, Orrie Hitt, author of "Virgins No More," "The Love Season," "Dirt Farm," and countless other scorchers.
155 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1958
About the author
Orrie Hitt
203 books35 followersOrrie Edwin Hitt was born in Colchester and died from cancer in a VA hospital in Montrose, NY. He married Charlotte Tucker in Pt Jervis, NY (a small town upstate where he became a lifelong resident), on Valentine’s Day, '43. Orrie & Charlotte had 4 kids—Joyce, Margaret, David & Nancy. He was under 5’5″, taking a 27' inseam, which his wife altered because no one sold pants so short.
Hitt wrote maybe 150 books. He wasn’t sure. “I’m no adding machine”, he answered on the back cover of his book Naked Flesh, when asked how many he’d written. “All I do is write. I usually start at 7 in the morning, take 20 minutes for lunch & continue until about 4 in the afternoon.” Hitt wrote a novel every 2 weeks in his prime, typing over 85 wpm. “His fastest & best works were produced when he was allowed to type whatever he wanted,” said his children. “His slowest works were produced when publishers insisted on a certain kind of novel, extra spicy etc.”
Most of Hitt’s books were PBOs. He also wrote some hardcovers. Pseudonyms include Kay Addams, Joe Black, Roger Normandie, Charles Verne & Nicky Weaver. Publishers include Avon, Beacon (later Softcover Library), Chariot, Domino (Lancer), Ember Library, Gaslight, Key Publishing, Kozy, MacFadden, Midwood, Novel, P.E.C, Red Lantern, Sabre, Uni-books, Valentine Books, Vantage Press, Vest-Pocket & Wisdom House.
He wrote in the adults only genre. Many of such writers were hacks, using thin plots as an excuse to throw tits & ass between covers for a quick buck. Others used the genre as a stepping stone to legitimate writing, later dismissing this part of their career. There were few like Hitt, whose writing left an original, idiosyncratic & lasting mark even beyond the horizons of '50s-mid 60s adult publishing. What made him unique was his belief he was writing realistically about the needs & desires, the brutality (both verbal & physical), the hypocritical lives inside the suburban tracts houses & the limited economic opportunities for women that lay beneath the glossy, Super Cinecolor, Father Knows Best surface of American life. He studied what he wrote about. Wanting to write about a nudist camp, he went to one tho “he wouldn't disrobe”.
His research allowed him to write convincingly. S. Stryker, in her Queer Pulp: Perverted Passions from the Golden Age of the Paperback, says, “Only one actual lesbian, Kay Addams, writing as Orrie Hitt, is known to have churned out semipornographic sleaze novels for a predominantly male audience.” She thought “Orrie Hitt” a pseudonym, & “Kay Addams” a real lesbian author! Orrie’d like that one.
It wasn’t just about sex. It was also about guts. “The characters,” Hitt’s protagonist–a movie producer complimenting a screenwriter on her work–says in the novel Man-Hungry Female, “were very real, red blooded people who tore at the guts of life. That’s what I’m after. Guts.” If anyone knew about guts, it was him.
Life started out tough for Hitt. His father committed suicide when he was 11. “Dad seldom spoke of his father, who'd committed suicide, because it was a very unpleasant chapter in his life,” said his children.
After Father’s death, Orrie & his mother moved to Forestburgh, NY, where they worked for a hunting-fishing club. He started doing chores for wealthy members for $.10 hourly. Management offered him a better job later, at .25 hourly. Eventually, he became club caretaker & supervisor. “Dad talked a lot about working as a child to help his mother make ends meet,” his children recalled. “He wanted his children to have a better life while growing up.”
Tragedy struck Hitt again during those years. His children explain: “Dad’s mom died at her sister’s house on the club property during an ice storm, so Dad walked to the house to get his mother & carried her back to his car"
Hitt wrote maybe 150 books. He wasn’t sure. “I’m no adding machine”, he answered on the back cover of his book Naked Flesh, when asked how many he’d written. “All I do is write. I usually start at 7 in the morning, take 20 minutes for lunch & continue until about 4 in the afternoon.” Hitt wrote a novel every 2 weeks in his prime, typing over 85 wpm. “His fastest & best works were produced when he was allowed to type whatever he wanted,” said his children. “His slowest works were produced when publishers insisted on a certain kind of novel, extra spicy etc.”
Most of Hitt’s books were PBOs. He also wrote some hardcovers. Pseudonyms include Kay Addams, Joe Black, Roger Normandie, Charles Verne & Nicky Weaver. Publishers include Avon, Beacon (later Softcover Library), Chariot, Domino (Lancer), Ember Library, Gaslight, Key Publishing, Kozy, MacFadden, Midwood, Novel, P.E.C, Red Lantern, Sabre, Uni-books, Valentine Books, Vantage Press, Vest-Pocket & Wisdom House.
He wrote in the adults only genre. Many of such writers were hacks, using thin plots as an excuse to throw tits & ass between covers for a quick buck. Others used the genre as a stepping stone to legitimate writing, later dismissing this part of their career. There were few like Hitt, whose writing left an original, idiosyncratic & lasting mark even beyond the horizons of '50s-mid 60s adult publishing. What made him unique was his belief he was writing realistically about the needs & desires, the brutality (both verbal & physical), the hypocritical lives inside the suburban tracts houses & the limited economic opportunities for women that lay beneath the glossy, Super Cinecolor, Father Knows Best surface of American life. He studied what he wrote about. Wanting to write about a nudist camp, he went to one tho “he wouldn't disrobe”.
His research allowed him to write convincingly. S. Stryker, in her Queer Pulp: Perverted Passions from the Golden Age of the Paperback, says, “Only one actual lesbian, Kay Addams, writing as Orrie Hitt, is known to have churned out semipornographic sleaze novels for a predominantly male audience.” She thought “Orrie Hitt” a pseudonym, & “Kay Addams” a real lesbian author! Orrie’d like that one.
It wasn’t just about sex. It was also about guts. “The characters,” Hitt’s protagonist–a movie producer complimenting a screenwriter on her work–says in the novel Man-Hungry Female, “were very real, red blooded people who tore at the guts of life. That’s what I’m after. Guts.” If anyone knew about guts, it was him.
Life started out tough for Hitt. His father committed suicide when he was 11. “Dad seldom spoke of his father, who'd committed suicide, because it was a very unpleasant chapter in his life,” said his children.
After Father’s death, Orrie & his mother moved to Forestburgh, NY, where they worked for a hunting-fishing club. He started doing chores for wealthy members for $.10 hourly. Management offered him a better job later, at .25 hourly. Eventually, he became club caretaker & supervisor. “Dad talked a lot about working as a child to help his mother make ends meet,” his children recalled. “He wanted his children to have a better life while growing up.”
Tragedy struck Hitt again during those years. His children explain: “Dad’s mom died at her sister’s house on the club property during an ice storm, so Dad walked to the house to get his mother & carried her back to his car"
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 6, 2014
The one is quite reminiscent of The Postman Always Rings Twice because the narrator blindly and uncontrollably chases after the wife at a husband and wife operated hotel. Of course he is also chasing after every other woman with a pulse, in between bouts of drunkenness and anger set off by as much as a sideways glance (“You looking at me?!”), so this is more than a one track story and there are some interesting plot twists in the last third that kick in just when the storyline threatens to go stale.
March 22, 2011
Ah, from the depth of the pulp rack at the used book store comes another gem! I found out after purchasing this gem based on the ridiculous cover art, title and plot blurb that Orrie Hitt was not only one of the most prolific porn/pulp writers of his time but he was also one of the best. After finding this out I was looking forward to a read that would not only good old fashioned pulp trash but might also actually be a good read on the merits of the writing; I was not disappointed.
There is no way around the fact that this is a racy book obviously quickly written. The story is predictable, the characters transparent and things, at times, are a little corny but there is something there beyond that. This book manages to have a little more depth to it than most similar books from the it's era. You really get a feel for the whole thing that delves much deeper into the how and the why of the story than usual in books like this.
There is no way around the fact that this is a racy book obviously quickly written. The story is predictable, the characters transparent and things, at times, are a little corny but there is something there beyond that. This book manages to have a little more depth to it than most similar books from the it's era. You really get a feel for the whole thing that delves much deeper into the how and the why of the story than usual in books like this.
September 24, 2025
Ah, from the depth of the pulp rack at the used book store comes another gem! I found out after purchasing this gem based on the ridiculous cover art, title and plot blurb that Orrie Hitt was not only one of the most prolific porn/pulp writers of his time but he was also one of the best. After finding this out I was looking forward to a read that would not only good old fashioned pulp trash but might also actually be a good read on the merits of the writing; I was not disappointed.
There is no way around the fact that this is a racy book obviously quickly written. The story is predictable, the characters transparent and things, at times, are a little corny but there is something there beyond that. This book manages to have a little more depth to it than most similar books from the it's era. You really get a feel for the whole thing that delves much deeper into the how and the why of the story than usual in books like this.
There is no way around the fact that this is a racy book obviously quickly written. The story is predictable, the characters transparent and things, at times, are a little corny but there is something there beyond that. This book manages to have a little more depth to it than most similar books from the it's era. You really get a feel for the whole thing that delves much deeper into the how and the why of the story than usual in books like this.
March 28, 2024
Yet another variation on James M. Cain from Orrie Hitt, but with a twist. Summer Hotel is very similar to another Hitt book, The Cheaters, written the same year, 1960. Both feature a triangle with a diabetic husband set in the Catskills, specifically Sullivan County.
March 11, 2013
Set in Sullivan County, NY., Hitt has some great, and accurate, descriptions of the Catskills lost late 50s-era. The main character gets fired from a diner after $5 goes missing from till, and he goes to work in the late spring getting a summer bungalow colony ready to open. Great story, but falls down toward the end.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews