 Maurice Girodias commissioned him to write erotica along with his friends and Merlin associates Christopher Logue, John Stevenson (writer), and George Plimpton.Under the name Frances Lengel, Trocchi churned out numerous pornographic books including the now classic "Helen and Desire" (1954) and a dirty version of his own book "Young Adam" (1954).Trocchi and his friends also published Samuel Beckett's "War and Memory" and Jean Genet's "Thief’s journal" in English for the first time.