Crash Club

"In the car-crazed youth culture of the 1950s and early 1960s, no figure was more important than the writer Henry Gregor Felsen. In my circle of semi-Beatnik Southern California street racers, for instance, his novels were were read and re-read until the paper covers literally disintegrated. He was one of the few adult writers (Jack Kerouac was the obvious other) who understood the full desperation and elation of our punched-to-the-metal generation. At the same time, this tough ex-Marine undoubtedly saved thousands of lives with his forensically sobering descriptions of the Friday night carnage on the crossroads of small Midwest towns. In American cultural history, Felsen was to the 1950s as L. Frank Baum (Wizard of Oz) was to the 1900s."

Mike Davis
Professor
Creative Writing
U.C. Riverside

So far, Raccoon Forks had been a lucky school. Its fads had been noisy, out-landish, expensive, silly; its leaders noble, flighty, and irritating. But it had been spared the destructive, damaging crazes that had seized students in other high schools. Indeed, the addiction to drag-racing gaudy cars was almost something to be thankful for.

And yet, the current fad was doomed from the day "Outlaw" Galt transferred to Raccoon Forks. He not only usurped Mike Revere's position as the "best boy with the best car," and also the girl who went with it, but set off a struggle for prestige and leadership that was fought with cars. Racing gave way to recklessness and "heroes" were measured by the depth of their road wounds.

Where would the new fad end? That question troubled the principal of Raccoon Forks High. But how to regain his leadership and the affections of his girl was all that mattered to Mike Revere. He'd find a way. . .

With Crash Club, Henry Gregor Felsen proves again, as he did with "Hot Rod" and "Street Rod," that he not only understands teen agers and their problems but can also write a story guaranteed to keep their eyes glued to it from start to finish.

Felsen's children, Dan Felsen and Holly Felsen Welch, have republished these favorites for the fans who loved them as teens and for new generations, as well.