A legacy of 400 pulp porno novels: Chris Offutt's revealing 'My Father, the Pornographer'

Chris Offutt places his literary beginning at age 9, when his father gave him his worn copy of "Treasure Island." But his powerful, gracefully written memoir "My Father, the Pornographer" shows that it was something he was born into.

Offutt's father, Andrew Jefferson Offutt V, published approximately...