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John Dann MacDonald (July 24, 1916 – December 28, 1986) was an American writer of novels and short stories. A prolific author of crime and suspense novels, many set in his adopted home of Florida, he was one of the most successful American novelists of his time. MacDonald sold an estimated 70 million books.

His best-known works include the popular and critically acclaimed Travis McGee series and his 1957 novel The Executioners, which was filmed twice as Cape Fear, once in 1962 and again in 1991, and adapted in 2026 as a television series.

Early life

MacDonald was born in Sharon, Pennsylvania, where his father, Eugene Macdonald, worked for the Savage Arms Corporation. The family relocated to Utica, New York in 1926, his father becoming treasurer of the Utica office of Savage Arms. In 1934, MacDonald was given a choice by his father: spend another year in school as a post-graduate, or go to Europe for several weeks. He chose Europe and this began an interest in travel and photography.

After graduating from high school, he enrolled at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, but he quit during his sophomore year. MacDonald worked at menial jobs in New York City, then was admitted to Syracuse University, where he met his future wife, Dorothy Prentiss. They married secretly in Pennsylvania in 1937, and had a public ceremony in Utica later that year. He graduated from Syracuse University the next year. The couple had one son, Maynard.

In 1939, MacDonald received an MBA from Harvard University. MacDonald later used his education in business and economics in crafting his fiction. Several of his novels are either set in the business world or involve shady financial or real estate deals.

In 1940, MacDonald accepted a direct commission as a first lieutenant of the United States Army Ordnance Corps. During World War II, he served in the Office of Strategic Services in the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations; this region featured in many of his earlier short stories and novels. He was discharged in September 1945 as a lieutenant colonel. Dear Dordo: The World War II Letters of Dorothy and John D. MacDonald was published by Peppertree Press in 2022.

In 1951 he moved his family from Utica, New York to Florida, eventually settling in Sarasota.

Writing career

Early fiction

MacDonald's first published short story, "G-Robot", appeared in the July 1936 Double Action Gang magazine. Following his 1945 discharge from the army, MacDonald spent four months writing short stories, generating some 800,000 words and losing 20 pounds (9.1 kg) while typing 14 hours a day, seven days a week. He received hundreds of rejection slips, but "Cash on the Coffin!" appeared in the May 1946 pulp magazine Detective Tales. He would eventually sell nearly 500 short stories to various mystery and adventure fiction magazines. Selections from MacDonald's early magazine fiction, somewhat revised, were later republished in two collections, The Good Old Stuff (1982) and More Good Old Stuff (1984),

Starting with The Brass Cupcake in 1950, MacDonald wrote more than forty standalone crime thrillers and domestic dramas, most published as paperback originals and many of them set in Florida. Among them was The Executioners (1957), which was filmed twice as Cape Fear and later republished under that title. MacDonald also wrote three science fiction novels, including The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything (1962), which was filmed for television. After introducing his series character Travis McGee in 1964, MacDonald concentrated mostly on that series, although he did publish four additional standalone novels.

Travis McGee

In 1964, MacDonald published The Deep Blue Good-by, the first of 21 novels starring Travis McGee, a self-described "salvage consultant" who recovers stolen property for a fee of 50 percent, and who narrates his adventures in the first person. McGee originally was to be called Dallas McGee, but MacDonald dropped that name after the Kennedy assassination, borrowing instead the name of Travis Air Force Base. The McGee adventures, each of which has a color in the title, mostly play out in Florida (where McGee lives a hedonistic bachelor life on a houseboat), the Caribbean, or Mexico, and many of them feature his friend and sidekick Dr. Meyer ("Just 'Meyer', please") Meyer, a renowned economist who helps Travis deconstruct elaborate swindles and cases of business corruption.

Death

Following complications of coronary artery bypass surgery, MacDonald slipped into a coma on December 10, 1986. He died at the age of seventy, on December 28, in St. Mary's Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is buried in Poland, New York. He was survived by his wife Dorothy (1911–1989) and a son, Maynard.

Media adaptations

MacDonald's novel Soft Touch was the basis for the 1961 film Man-Trap.

His 1957 novel The Executioners was filmed in 1962 as Cape Fear featuring Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum. Martin Scorsese directed the 1991 remake of Cape Fear starring Robert De Niro and Nick Nolte. Because of the success of the films, The Executioners has been republished under the Cape Fear title, even though the novel is set in Florida and does not mention Cape Fear, North Carolina. A new adaptation as a TV series for Apple TV was released in 2026, starring Javier Bardem, Amy Adams and Patrick Wilson.

His 1963 novel The Drowner was adapted as an episode of the television series Kraft Suspense Theatre entitled "The Deep End", which aired in January 1964.

The novel Cry Hard, Cry Fast was adapted as a two-part episode of the television series Run for Your Life during November 1967.

A 1970 film adaptation of the novel Darker Than Amber was directed by Robert Clouse from a screenplay by MacDonald and Ed Waters. It featured Rod Taylor as series character Travis McGee with Theodore Bikel as his sidekick Meyer. The film earned positive reviews but lost money, causing producer Jack Reeves to abandon his plans to continue the series.