John D. MacDonald

American action-adventure writer, winner of the Edgar Grand Master award from the Mystery Writers of America, 1972, and winner of the American Book Award's mystery competition with his novel "The Green Ripper," 1980. Best known for creating the character of Travis McGee, an eccentric anti-hero detective who appeared in 21 mystery novels, his prolific career spanned more than 40 years. He wrote 77 books and 500 short stories.

John's dad was a strong-willed workaholic who rose from humble origins to become a top executive at a firearms company in Utica, New York. At age 12, the boy suffered a near-fatal attack of mastoiditis and scarlet fever which confined him to bed for many months. It was during this time he discovered the great joy of reading and went through huge quantities of books.

After graduating from the Utica Free Academy in 1933, MacDonald attended the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania and then transferred to the Syracuse University where he earned a B.S. in Business Administration in January 1938. Later he received a master's degree from the Harvard School of Business, June 1939.

After taking several jobs he didn't like, in June 1940 he accepted a lieutenant's commission in the U.S. Army Reserve and was assigned to active duty at the Rochester Ordnance District in Rochester, New York. In June 1943 he was assigned to the China-Burma-India Theater Headquarters in New Delhi and was later recruited overseas by the OSS (CIA forerunner) and appointed commander of the Branch Establishment of Detachment 404 in Colombo, Ceylon. In wartime the outgoing mail was heavily censored and he found it difficult to write enough in letters he sent his wife, Dorothy. One time he wrote her a short story instead of a letter. She liked it, typed it up and sent it to "Story Magazine." It appeared in the July-August 1946 issue. When he found out they paid $25 for it, he felt like an impostor, trying to be something he wasn't.