The Red Hot Typewriter : The Life and Times of John D. MacDonald

Rating:
Summary: Informative, but incomplete
Review: As a diehard John D. MacDonald fan, I felt the book left much to be desired. MacDonald's pre-Travis McGee work, from l950-1960 most notably, was barely mentioned, or dismissed as unimportant. The author never took the time to interview the many people who worked with or knew MacDonald, relying only on correspondance. Overall, the book was a disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: Informative, but incomplete
Review: As a diehard John D. MacDonald fan, I felt the book left much to be desired. MacDonald's pre-Travis McGee work, from l950-1960 most notably, was barely mentioned, or dismissed as unimportant. The author never took the time to interview the many people who worked with or knew MacDonald, relying only on correspondance. Overall, the book was a disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: good sketch of macdonald, but he deserves more than a sketch
Review: As a longtime fan of the Travis McGee novels, I was eager to learn more about the writer who created him.

"The Red Hot Typewriter" gives a brief glimpse of the man but doesn't go into enough detail. There's not a very strong sense of chronology, particularly with the McGee series, and the details that are there are cut short just when they were getting interesting.

"Red Hot" contains just enough odd facts to make it worthwhile -- MacDonald's strange battle of wills with American Express, the origin of Travis as Dallas McGee (changed shortly after the Kennedy assassination), a strange sad feud between John D. and a close friend, and the conception of Meyer -- but a better, richer and more complete bio of MacDonald should (hopefully) appear soon.

Rating:
Summary: good sketch of macdonald, but he deserves more than a sketch
Review: As a longtime fan of the Travis McGee novels, I was eager to learn more about the writer who created him.

"The Red Hot Typewriter" gives a brief glimpse of the man but doesn't go into enough detail. There's not a very strong sense of chronology, particularly with the McGee series, and the details that are there are cut short just when they were getting interesting.

"Red Hot" contains just enough odd facts to make it worthwhile -- MacDonald's strange battle of wills with American Express, the origin of Travis as Dallas McGee (changed shortly after the Kennedy assassination), a strange sad feud between John D. and a close friend, and the conception of Meyer -- but a better, richer and more complete bio of MacDonald should (hopefully) appear soon.

Rating:
Summary: Educational and entertaining.
Review: Having grown up reading the Travis McGee series and more recently reading the rest of the vast library of John D. MacDonald, I found this book personalized the late pulp master for me, as I hoped and expected. You get a feel for the intellect of both John D. and his wife; the influence of his romance and relationship with his wife comes through in his life's work. My only complaint about the book is that I wanted more...but, then again, that is the feeling that I have as I re-read all of John D. MacDonald's books.

Rating:
Summary: Phone it in next time...
Review: How do you write a biography of a man and not talk to anyone who knew him, not visit anyplace he lived, and not include any photographs of the man or his family? It's easy: you write brief introductions to letters and passages from the writer's books, and call it a biography. The Red Hot Typewriter isn't red or hot. It is a color-by-numbers biography that is in the end colorless. A massive disappointment if you're a John D. fan, or a fan of good biography.

Rating:
Summary: rather bland and superficial
Review: I am a long time MacDonald fan, and have read most everything he wrote. I once made the pilgrimage to Bahia Mar to see the `Busted Flush' plaque mounted there.

I was delighted when I learned of Hugh Merrill's biography, and curious to know more about MacDonald, the man who created Travis McGee, and wrote so eloquently about the Florida environment.

The Red Hot Typewriter is a disappointment.

It is worth reading if you are a die-hard fan. It includes bits of interesting trivia. What was McGee's first name and why was it changed to Travis? Why the reference to a color in the Magee mystery series?

However, you finish the book feeling as if you don't know John D. MacDonald much better than you did when you began. The author obviously did a lot of research. Unfortunately he presents it in a rather bland and superficial manner. It's as if the author's primary reference source was MacDonald's correspondence, and he didn't go much beyond that. The thoughts and personal anecdotes of friends and family are, for the most part, missing.

What really surprises and disappoints me is that this book has no photographs, none, nada, zero. Pictures would have saved this book for me. I am at a loss to understand why any publisher would produce a biography without including pictures that complement the prose. One of many examples was Hugh Merrill's description of MacDonald's visit to the set where a Travis McGee mystery was being made into a movie. Surely, Warner Brothers publicity took pictures, but you won't find them in this biography.

Rating:
Summary: rather bland and superficial
Review: I am a long time MacDonald fan, and have read most everything he wrote. I once made the pilgrimage to Bahia Mar to see the 'Busted Flush' plaque mounted there.

I was delighted when I learned of Hugh Merrill's biography, and curious to know more about MacDonald, the man who created Travis McGee, and wrote so eloquently about the Florida environment.

The Red Hot Typewriter is a disappointment.

It is worth reading if you are a die-hard fan. It includes bits of interesting trivia. What was McGee's first name and why was it changed to Travis? Why the reference to a color in the Magee mystery series?

However, you finish the book feeling as if you don't know John D. MacDonald much better than you did when you began. The author obviously did a lot of research. Unfortunately he presents it in a rather bland and superficial manner. It's as if the author's primary reference source was MacDonald's correspondence, and he didn't go much beyond that. The thoughts and personal anecdotes of friends and family are, for the most part, missing.

What really surprises and disappoints me is that this book has no photographs, none, nada, zero. Pictures would have saved this book for me. I am at a loss to understand why any publisher would produce a biography without including pictures that complement the prose. One of many examples was Hugh Merrill's description of MacDonald's visit to the set where a Travis McGee mystery was being made into a movie. Surely, Warner Brothers publicity took pictures, but you won't find them in this biography.

Rating:
Summary: It's nice to read him again.
Review: Like the best of his subject's work, Hugh Merrill has fashioned a lean, direct biography of John D. MacDonald, creator of the Travis McGee series. The design and feel of the book transports the reader back to the age of pulp fiction and early paperback originals. Fans of John D. will find all the highlights of his career here. Gaps are filled in family background and some insights are provided to the inner workings of the author's mind and motivations. This is not an exhaustive examination of his career but a very good starting place. One wishes for some more details. How does the non-athletic youth become the adult who on occasion has grabbed another by the labels, or broken up a fight outside Billie Holliday's dressing room? Does research and work ethic enable a writer to so powerfully describe casual violence and banality? John D. was a private man who obviously guarded his feelings. Perhaps the real John D. is most visible in Travis and Meyer. An enlightening and informative, easy read that only makes one appreciate and miss John D. even more.