Ordeal Co-Author Mike McGrady Dead at 78

Mike McGrady, co-author with Linda Lovelace of the best-selling books Ordeal and Out of Bondage, has died at the age of 78.

Aside from those two works, the award-winning journalist is probably best known for the 1969 literary hoax Naked Came the Stranger, a gang-bang of a book conceived by McGrady and written by him and two dozen accomplices. Published under the pseudonym Penelope Ashe, it purported to tell the real-life sexcapades of a run-of-the-mill Long Island housewife.

My sole professional experience with McGrady was considerably less fulfilling. After Linda agreed to speak with me for The Complete Linda Lovelace, she encouraged me to talk to him about their relationship, also mentioning the possibility of hearing some of their interview tapes. She gave me his phone number and even called him up beforehand to tell him about my project. 

In a frustratingly short exchange, my interview request was denied because, he said, my book would "negatively impact" his ability to sell the movie rights to Ordeal.

Read his New York Times obituary here.