With an introduction by CARL HIAASEN

JOHN D. MacDONALD

"...the great entertainer of our age, and a mesmerizing storyteller."

--STEPHEN KING

"...a master storyteller, a masterful suspense writer."

--MARY HIGGINS CLARK

"...a dominant influence on writers crafting the continuing series character."

--SUE GRAFTON

"...my favorite novelist of all time."

--DEAN KOONTZ

"...the consummate pro, a master storyteller and witty observer."

--JONATHAN KELLERMAN

"...remains one of my idols."

--DONALD WESTLAKE

THE TRAVIS McGEE SERIES

"...one of the great sagas in American fiction."

--ROBERT B. PARKER

"...what a joy that these timeless and treasured novels are available again."

--ED McBAIN

I remember the house in Utica, New York, where John D. grew up. The curtains were always closed and the atmosphere seemed invariably dark and somber. Nothing there predicted his imaginative outpouring. Imagination was frivolity and frivolity was not on the agenda.

He followed his own father's path toward the commercial world. While earning a Master's Degree in Business Administration from Harvard, he married Dorothy Prentiss, an artist, and produced one small son. Then he went off to war. The marriage of the business graduate and the creative person was the unrecognized first step in John D.'s becoming an author.

During service in China, Burma, and India, his mail was heavily censored. In frustration he wrote a short story and sent it to my mother. She saw his potential and sold the story. When my father came home, a Lieutenant Colonel and Harvard graduate, his father presented him with a list of plum career options. He turned them down and took an undemanding job so that he could pour his energy into writing.

Eventually, we moved to Florida. For my parents, Florida was the land of light, the place where the curtains were never drawn. The place itself became a topic and Travis McGee strode into the landscape.

Maynard MacDonald