BlackHat Mystery Bookstore

John D. MacDonald
[1916-1986]

       Travis McGee is the protagonist of 21 novels written by John D. MacDonald (whose bio follows this 'bio' of Travis). The first four books were published in 1964, with Korean War veteran Travis already established in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on the houseboat that he won in a poker game and renamed the 'Busted Flush'. Travis drives a painted-purple Rolls-Royce pickup truck called 'Miss Agnes' and lives a Sixties fantasy lifestyle – on the surface – fishing and boating and partying with other folk around the Bahia Mar marina and picking up cute females with the net of his looks and charm. But he earns his largely-unreported income by hiring out as a 'salvage consultant' when he must, or when a friend in need calls on his help. For such dangerous work he charges half of the amount recovered.

       1964: In "The Deep Blue Good-By" Travis travels to Texas & Manhattan and eventually restores an inheritence that the client, Cathy Kerr, did not realize existed. In "Nightmare In Pink", Mike, an old Army buddy, asks Travis to investigate the death of the man whose strange death prevented his marriage to Mike's sister; the trail leads to Manhattan and Upstate New York; Travis discovers corruption by financial trustees and a call girl ring, and experiences harrowing confinement (by the bad guys) in a nuthouse.
       Travis's best friend Meyer is introduced in "A Purple Place For Dying": Meyer is a world-class economist, living nicely on investments and lecture fees, aboard the John Maynard Keynes. Travis is hired by a woman from an Old West desert valley, who is shot dead just as Travis arrives to meet with her. "The Quick Red Fox" brings Travis to Hollywood, where he saves movie star Lysa Dean from a blackmailer – with side trips to Big Sur, New York & Las Vegas giving the author opportunity to expound on the excesses of the vulgar rich.
       1965: In "A Deadly Shade of Gold", Travis looks into the murder of a friend over golden Mayan artifacts, leading him to Mexico and a network of venal Cuban refugees. In "Bright Orange For The Shroud", Travis helps a local pal who has been cleaned out by a gang of swindlers.
       1966: In "Darker Than Amber", Travis & Meyer save a proud beauty tossed over a bridge with her ankles tied to a cement block; the threesome bust up a cruise ship murder racket. In "One Fearful Yellow Eye", Travis delves into the Chicago art world, and he and lady-love Heidi narrowly escape death.
       1968: In "Pale Gray For Guilt", the supposed suicide of friend Tush Bannon is not believable, and Travis avenges Bannon's murder by land speculators and also finds true love with Puss Killian, though she leaves him at the end of the book.
       1969: In "The Girl In The Plain Brown Wrapper", classy former love Helena Pearson Trescott dies bringing Travis a message and a check to hire him to save her daughter from corrupt doctors. In "Dress Her In Indigo", Travis & Meyer travel to a remote resort near Oaxaca, Mexico, to investigate the death of the daughter of a friend.
       1970: In "The Long Lavender Look", a redneck rural sheriff finds Travis & Meyer perfect suspects in the murder of a young girl. After his ordeal, Travis finds solace & healing with Heidi.
       1971: In "A Tan & Sandy Silence", a man attacks Travis, demanding the return of his wife; Travis tracks her to Grenada and a psychotic villain. He meets Lady Jillian, turns down her unabashed sexual offers, and becomes fast friends with her (she appears in later books).
       1973: In "The Scarlet Ruse", murder and stamp-collecting drive the plot. Local hustler Willy Nucci is introduced, and Travis recuperates at the end with former client Cathy Kerr.
       1974: "The Turquoise Lament" was the first Travis McGee novel to be published in hardcover before the paperback. Travis helps locate underwater treasure in La Paz, Mexico, and after several murders, goes to Samoa to catch the killer.
       1975: In "The Dreadful Lemon Sky", the story begins with the suspicious death of a marina owner and the murder of an old friend just after she gives Travis a bundle of cash to protect for her. Travis & Meyer infiltrate the town of Bayside and the subcultures of swinging singles, marijuana smuggling, and corrupt small-town politics.
       1978: In "The Empty Copper Sea", Travis & Meyer pose as real estate developers to solve the disappearance (supposedly death-by-drowning) that is blamed on an old pal. Travis fends off a lounge singer's attentions and falls seriously for Gretel Howard.
       1980: In "The Green Ripper", lady love Gretel's suspicious sudden death leads Travis to a religious/militarist cult in Northern California. Travis uses guerrilla skills learned in the Army to destroy the organization and the camp.
       1981: In "Free Fall In Crimson", Travis asks Lysa Dean {see "Quick Red Fox" above} for help investigating a biker movie director's connections to drugs, porn and murder. Meyer is psychologically devastated after being taken hostage, and Travis becomes smitten with Annie, the tiny manager of a Gulf Coast hotel.
       1982: In "Cinnamon Skin", Annie leaves and Meyer is still in shock, so Travis takes Meyer along tracking a serial killer across Texas to Cancun, Mexico, where Travis & Meyer & a Mayan beauty trap the villain.
       1985: In "Lonely Silver Rain", Travis is beginning to feel his age. A wealthy friend asks Travis to find a stolen 52-foot yacht, and Travis does so, but there are dead bodies aboard, so he has to fend off Columbian drug smugglers (who figure Travis a perfect scapegoat) while trying to track down the real killers. At the end, Travis is surprised by a daughter he never knew about, a result of his love affair with Puss Killian {see "Pale Gray For Guilt" above}.

       Contrary to the persistent rumor, John D. MacDonald neither planned nor wrote a book with 'Black' in the title, about the death of Travis McGee.

       John Dann MacDonald was born 24 July 1916 in Sharon, Pennsylvania. Childhood illness confined him to bed, where he found escape thru books (much as did Robert Louis Stevenson & others). He was educated at Wharton, Syracuse & Harvard. He married Dorothy Mary Prentiss in 1937, producing a son, Johnny, in 1940.
       John enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1940 as a lieutenant, was posted to India, and eventually made the rank of lieutenant colonel. While overseas, he sent his wife stories rather than letters, which she submitted to pulp magazines. His first success – a $25 sale to the prestigious Story Magazine inspired him to a career as a writer. After his discharge, he wrote feverishly, and a string of stories were published from 1947 to 1952, many under several pseudonyms. The pulp fiction magazines were by that time dying out, so John began writing for and selling to better magazines, though book publication proved elusive.
       Brothers Roscoe and William Fawcett founded Fawcett/Gold Medal books in 1949, and quickly established a market for original paperback novels. "The Brass Cupcake" [1950] was the first of 36 popular John D. MacDonald novels published by Fawcett. Dell published 9 paperback novels and the anthology "The Lethal Sex" between 1954 & 1959. In the early 60's, competition began to be felt at Fawcett, so the editor asked John to write a series, and the result was Travis McGee & Meyer and 21 very successful books.
       John added a series of best-sellers – "Condominium" and "Barrier island" and "One More Sunday" and others – for a lifetime total of 21 McGee novels, 45 other novels, scores of short stories, and a dozen other books. He died 28 December 1986 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin after a heart bypass operation.
       The Travis McGee series has never been out of print at Fawcett/Gold Medal, and the many other John D. MacDonald paperback and hardback books are worth the chasing after.

       ADDED 3/2015: After one produced but unsuccessful Travis McGee feature film, two Travis McGee TV movies, and a swarm of attempts to get a Travis McGee movie made, Fox's new feature film of "The Deep Blue Good-By" may soon start principal photography. Christian Bale & Rosamund Pike are attached, the most recent script is by Dennis Lehane, James Mangold (who helmed "3:10 To Yuma" with Bale) will direct; most recently, dwarf Peter Dinklage (as sidekick Meyer) and ingenue Nicola Peltz are in talks to join the cast; filming is set to start this May in Puerto Rico & Florida.