Lawrence Sanders; ‘Anderson Tapes’ Launched Career as Novelist

Lawrence Sanders, 78, author who earned success with his first novel, “The Anderson Tapes.” The prolific writer proved durable, selling about 58 million copies of his thrillers and detective novels in the U.S. and 30 other countries. Putnam is scheduled to publish Sanders’ 38th book, “Guilty Pleasures,” later this month. Born in Brooklyn and reared in the Midwest, Sanders was educated at Wabash College in Indiana and served in the Marine Corps during World War II. He began his writing career as a journalist for Science and Mechanics magazine, and applied the technical knowledge he gained there to “The Anderson Tapes” in 1970. The crime novel, constructed of fictional police reports and fictional transcripts of surveillance recordings, won the Edgar Award for best first novel from the Mystery Writers of America. Sanders carried characters, particularly a New York police detective and later a Florida private eye, through series of books. On Saturday in Pompano Beach, Fla.