Looking for Ross Macdonald and finding John D. MacDonald ... the first packet of JDM novels arrives – Part 2

Both writers were born one year apart and were contemporaries, and passed away within three years of each other.  In fact, Ross Macdonald, whose real name is Kenneth Millar, experimented with various pseudonyms.

“For his fifth novel, in 1949, he wrote under the name John Macdonald, in order to avoid confusion with his wife, who was achieving her own success writing as Margaret Millar. He then changed his pen name briefly to John Ross Macdonald, before settling on Ross Macdonald, in order to avoid being confused with fellow mystery writer John D. MacDonald, who wrote under his real name.”

So, there is a connection after all … good … now, to move further … is John D. MacDonald a prolific writer? Oh god, yes … ‘prolific’ describes him … around 75 novels and 5 short story collections … awesome, na … (trying to use new lingo!!) … John D. MacDonald too comes under the ‘hardboiled’ mystery writers’ category like Chandler, Hammett, and Ross Macdonald … these are all ‘hard-boiled’ writers … tough cookies, eh … John D. MacDonald too has his own favourite gumshoe, and wrote 21 novels featuring Travis McGee, an “intelligent and introspective” man, with a “hard cynical streak.”  He is a “salvage consultant” and “knight-errant.” “McGee made his living by recovering the loot from thefts and swindles, keeping half to finance his "retirement," which he took in pieces as he went along.” 

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._MacDonald)

And ... this is how John D. MacDonald looked like ... 

Ah, yes … it was his novel The Executioners, which was made into the movie Cape Fear, in 1962, with Gregory Peck, and it was remade in 1991 by Martin Scorsese …

All these decided me … I went back to the secondhand books site and checked the available titles against the Trevor McGee list … 5 titles … and one collection of John D. MacDonald’s early mystery stories … great … the price ranged from Rs.75 to Rs.90 per title … not bad at all … I tried not to compare the prices with ‘what if I had got these at Abids’ prices … tch tch ... bad habit only ... 

And I received these 6 titles by John D. MacDonald yesterday (24th July 2015).

This is the first in the Travis McGee series ... written in 1964 ... this one is a 1984 reprint ... I am happy and relieved that I got the first one in the series ... 

Darker than Amber is the seventh in the Travis McGee series and was published in 1966 ... and ha ha ha ... can you believe this?  This copy I got is the first edition ... ha ha ha ... 

Published in 1970, The Long Lavender Look is the 12th in the series ... 

This one is the 15th in the series ... and was published in 1973 ... 

Cinnamon Skin was published in 1982 and is the 20th in the Travis McGee series ...

Did you notice something?  Each title has a 'colour' word ... unless you see four or five at a time, you wouldn't notice this ... this colour word, suggested by John MacDonald's publisher was supposed to act like a mnemonic device for the readers “...so that when harried travelers in airports looked to buy a book, they could at once see those MacDonald titles they had not yet read.” 

And The Good Old Stuff is really the icing on the cake as far this collection is concerned for me ... this is like aged malt or something like that ... this book contains 13 stories of his pre-Travis McGee years ... these stories were published between 1947 and 1952 in magazines like Detective Tales, New Detective Magazine, Doc Savage Magazine, Dime Detective, Mystery Book Magazine, and others ... this edition has an introduction by Francis M. Nevins, Jr. and a foreword by John D. MacDonald ... 

I strongly feel I should begin with this good old stuff ...