John D. Macdonald

The grandfather of the great writers of Florida, John D. MacDonald.


A native of Utica, NY, John D. Macdonald got his M.B.A. from Harvard before being sent off to WWII where heserved in theChina, Burma, and India Theater (CBI). While in serving, he wrote his first short story and sent it home to his wife, and she had it sold before he even got back from the war.

Upon returning, as a Lt. Colonel and Harvard graduate, he had his choice of plum career options yet he took an undemanding job so he could concentrate on writing. He moved to Florida, the land of light, the place where "the curtains were never drawn" and blossomed into one of the preeminent fiction writers of the 20th century.
When he moved there, FortLauderdale had been the scene for several bad movies but hardly any books. This would quickly changee. He put it on the literary map by writing over fifty stand alone novels that included the world famous Cape Fear which became a movie twice, once with Robert Mitchum and then again with Robert DeNiro playing the ex-con psychopath antagonist.

And then there is the Travis McGee series, which chokes me with emotion even just to write about. With the base of my throat swelling, overwhelmed by the imaginary feel of white sand between my toes, I say thank you John D. MacDonald for so much.

In the reissuing of the Travis McGee series in the mmid-1990s, the introductions to each novel where penned by some of the leading authors of the time, each writing about how influential MacDonald was to them. Stephen King, Sue Grafton, Mary Higgins Clark, Dean Kootz, Donald Westlake, Jonathan Kellerman, Ed McBain, Robert B. Parker... and of course my favorite Florida writer, Carl Hiaasen.

Rugged and sentimental, fearless and flawed, McGee is everything a connoisseur of private eye capers could ever want; a knight in rusty armor', a knock about retriever of lost fortunes and a savior of spiraling souls Travis is gritty and yet tender. A Korean war vet living on a houseboat he won in a card game, the "Busted Flush", docked in Ft. Lauderdale, he engages in 'salvage work' and keeps half of what he recovers to pay his slip-fees and put beer on the table, his is a character for the age. The first fictional character of the 'disillusioned-with-Norman Rockwell's-America' genre, he was a precursor to the social movements of the 1960's and it is worth reading these novels just to hear his bearing witness to the changes in America from his incarnation in the early 1950's until his last adventure in the early 1980's.

Written with a wise cynical eye that evokes Raymond Chandler, he tells rip roaring yarns but also he nails mid to late 20th century Florida for all its languid sleaze, racy sense of promise and breath taking beauty. He wanted his readers to do more than see Florida, he wanted them to care about it deeply, celebrate it as he did, marvel at it, laugh about it, grieve for it and even fight for it.

Travis McGee was a poet-naturalist who was also a hard bitten sleuth, a samurai writing poetry. He was a very special character and with MacDonald's' unexpected death in 1986, millions of fans worldwide were left wondering what would happen to him. For me, I prefer to think he just moved the "Busted Flush" from slip F-18 and is still out there to this day. For if he's really gone, I prefer not to know.