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John D. MacDonald
American mystery writer, one of the great names of the genre, who established his name in the pulps in the 1940s. MacDonald created his popular series character Travis McGee in his forty-fourth novel THE DEEP BLUE GOOD-BY in 1964. In the course of twenty-one novels McGee gained fame as the most "colorful" of all unofficial private detectives - each novel in the McGee series contains a color in the title.
After graduation MacDonald worked for Guardian Life Insurance Company in Syracuse. In 1940 he joined the army and served in the Office of Strategic Services in the Burma-China-India theatre. During this time he began write fiction, and sold later all kinds of stories - sports, science, adventure, fantasy - to a number of magazines. His first story was published in Story magazine, and the first novel, THE BRASS CUPCAKE, appeared in 1950. This original paperback publication was written for Fawcett. MacDonald's early apprentice years as a pulp writer offered him an invaluable opportunity to learn how to plot, create vivid characters and set the pace to his stories.
"I think that most of us have a greater liking for strong and solid people than we have for the whimps of the world. With the strong people you can tell where you stand. Nobody, of course, is too strong to ever be broken. And that is McGee's forte, helping the strong broken ones mend." (in 'John D. MacDonald' by Ed Gorman, from The Big Book of Noir, 1998)
Since 1949 MacDonald lived with his family in Florida, the scene of most of his tales. In the summers the MacDonalds lived at Piseco Lake, New York, or travelled in different parts of the world. Like Raymond Chandler or Ross MacDonald he used fiction to comment such moral or social issues as ecological dangers, racism, political corruption, real estate scams, infidelity, and the drug culture. The threatened nature of Florida was one of his central issues and he also served on environmental committees in Sarasota.
The author called McGee a 'tattered knight on a spavined steed'. As a man of honor McGee doesn't work only for money, although as a salvage consultant he takes his rightful share. He swindles the swindlers and helps the defenseless. In THE GIRL IN THE PLAIN BROWN WRAPPER (1968) McGee helps Helen Pearson, whose husband had needed his help some years before. In CINNAMON SKIN (1982), a story of a serial murderer, McGee tries to find out why the niece of his good friend Mayer has been killed. But in THE SCARLET RUSE (1973) Meyer rescues McGee after McGee has been badly injured, and aids him also in THE DREADFUL LEMON SKY (1975). Behind the crime is often political corruption, lust for power - and big business. With his M.B.A. degree MacDonald had better than average knowledge of finances and crooked deals.
McGee's home turf is Florida but after spending some time in Mexico MacDonald returned to these experiences in THE DAMNED (1952), BORDER TOWN GIRL (1956), and in some of his short stories, among them 'The Big Blue' from END OF THE TIGER (1966). The satirical DRESS HER IN INDIGO (1971), set in Oaxaca, Mexico, brought on the stage American hippies and with them the obligatory drug culture.
"MacDonald said that when he put the color black in a title he would kill off his hero, but he left no such novel. McGee is, on the whole, little preoccupied with death; but he is conscious of a loss of vitality and the richness of life in the later novels." (Lewis D. Moore in 'John D. MacDonald', Mystery and Suspense Writers, ed. by Robin W. Winks, 1998, vol 1.)
THE LONELY SILVER RAIN (1984) was the last of the Travis McGee adventures. MacDonald never used the color black - or white - in the title, and it was rumored for a long time that there was a final, 'black' McGee story. MacDonald died on December 28, 1986. Among his awards were Grand Prix de Littérature Policiere (1964), Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award (1972), and American Book Award (1980). The first John D. MacDonald conference was held in 1978 and subsequent followed in the 1980s and 1990s
Thanks to Petri Liukkonen in Finland
for letting us take information
from his "Authors Website"
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