John D. MacDonald Biography

Fast Facts

• Served in the Office of Strategic Services, which would later become the CIA, during World War II
• Won a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award in 1972
• Became the only mystery writer to win the National Book Award in 1980 for his novel "The Green Ripper․"
• Won the Grand Prix de Littérature Policiere Award for the creation of the character Travis McGee in 1964
• Graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in Business in 1938 and earned his MBA from Harvard University in 1939
• Began writing fiction during the war, when he would send short stories home to his wife
• His first short story was published in Story magazine in 1945 by his wife while he was still serving in the war
• Quote: "(On what motivated him to start writing during World War II): "The only kind of letters that would pass through censorship in those days made pretty dull reading, so instead of a letter, I wrote my wife a short story․""
• During his career he wrote 78 books and 500 short stories, with more than 75 million copies of these in print at the time of his death in 1986
• Best known as an author who wrote the novels "The Executioners," which became the film "Cape Fear," and "The Empty Copper Sea," which became "Travis McGee․"