Authors and Creators
John D. MacDonald
Also wrote as John Wade Farrel, Robert Henry, John Lane, Scott O'Hara, Peter Reed, Henry Reiser
(1916-1986)

Best known as the creator of Travis McGee, John Dann MacDonald was one of the last of the old pulpsters to continue writing fiction successfully, making a name for himself in the burgeoning paperback market of the fifties, and continuing to appear on the bestseller lists well into the eighties in fact. In his long career, he produced over seventy books, mostly in the hardboiled/crime vein, although he did produce some decent work in science fiction, romance and other genres. He even produced some notable non-fiction, particularly No Deadly Drug, a true crime book, and The House Guests, a cat's eye view of the world.

He was born in Pennsylvania, and received his MBA at Harvard, but moved to Florida after World War II. While stationed in the Far East, to amuse himself he wrote a short story, and sent it to his wife. His wife loved it, and supposedly without MacDonald's permission, submitted it to the prestigious slick, Story, where it was accepted. Inspired by this success, MacDonald decided to become a writer, and upon his return Stateside, he wrote hundreds of stories, mostly for the pulps. He continued to pump them out, until, as he put it, "the last of them were shot out from under me."

Fortunately, just as the pulps were dying out, MacDonald was able to catch the rising wave of the paperback boom. From 1950 until he released his first Travis Mcgee novel, he published over forty PBO's, all stand-alones. His crime novels of this period are masters of the form -- spare, tight, often dark and even nasty tales of desperate men in way over their heads; taut morbid fables with psychological underpinnings and a burgeoning environmental awareness, often set in his adopted state of Florida. It was these books that served him well when he finally unleashed his series character, the colourful and larger-than-life Travis McGee. What could have been merely a string of cheesy paperbacks about a mouth-breathing pseudo-Robin Hood beach bum instead became, in many ways, a chronicle of America's own growing awareness of social issues. And, oh yeah, simply as pure adventure, they kicked ass.

MacDonald served as president of The Mystery Writers of America, and was elected a Grand Master in 1972. He also received the Benjamin Franklin Award for Short Story in 1955, the French Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere in 1964 and the American Book Award in 1980.

UNDER OATH

SHORT STORIES

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NON-FICTION

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Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Thanks, Quatermass.


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