The John D.MacDonaldCollection

at the University of Florida

For more information on the John D. MacDonald Collection at the University of Florida consult the fi nding aid at http://web.ufl ib.ufl .edu/spec/manuscript/guides/Macdonald.htm

Or contact: FLORENCE TURCOTTE Research Services Archivist Department of Special and Area Studies Collections PO Box 117007 Gainesville, FL 32611 (352) 273-2767 fl oturc@ufl ib.ufl .edu

The John D. MacDonald Collectionat the University of Florida

John Dann MacDonald was born July 24, 1916 in Sharon, Pennsylvania. While attending Syracuse School of Business, MacDonald met Dorothy Prentiss, and they were married in 1937. He went on to attend Harvard Business School and received an M.B.A. in 1939. Following his discharge from military service at the end of WWII, he began to write full-time. MacDonald’s fi rst published short story, “Interlude in India,” appeared in Story magazine in the July/August 1946 issue. He continued selling his short stories to magazines while working on his fi rst full-length novel, Th e Brass Cupcake, which was published in 1950. Two years and fi ve novels later, MacDonald settled into his longtime home in Sarasota, Florida, where he wrote over sixty novels, contributed to anthologies and magazines, assisted in fi lm and television adaptations of his writings, taught at New College, served on the board of directors of the Ringling School of Art, and participated in local environmental preservation eff orts. He is best known for his series of detective novels featuring the protagonist Travis Magee, and is acknowledged as a master of the adventure-thriller genre. He was named a grand master of the Mystery Writers of America in 1972 and won the American Book Award in 1980. He was awarded honorary degrees from Hobart and William Smith Colleges and the University of South Florida. He died on December 28, 1986. John McDonald aboard his boat Muñequita.

Th e John D. MacDonald Collection at the University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries is located in the Special Collections Department in the Smathers Library Building. Th is important and comprehensive literary collection is truly unique, making the Smathers Libraries the paramount destination for present and future MacDonald scholars and devotees. Whether they are local undergraduates interested in detective pulp fi ction, longtime MacDonald fans, screenwriters hoping to bring more of MacDonald’s work to the big or small screen, or scholars from universities across the country and around the world, all gather to learn more about this colorful and prolifi c literary fi gure.