Clarence Cooper, Jr.

Born in 1934, Clarence L. Cooper, Jr.’s life was shaped by incarceration and drug addiction. The intensity of addiction and the violence and greed he experienced on the streets are the basis for The Scene, his first novel. First published in 1960, this explosive book depicts the hellish realism of the urban underground world of drug pushers, users, and narcotics detectives. Upon its publication, The New York Herald Tribune said: “Not even Nelson Algren’s The Man With the Golden Arm burns with the ferocious intensity you’ll find here.” Cooper completed seven novels before he passed in 1978.