For millions of readers John D. MacDonald is the consum-
mate storyteller of our time， a x~fiter ~o， ~t~a h~ ~，e~c
prose， his vivid sense of character， his all but miraculous skill
at describing every sort of person and setting and event with
economy， elegance， and total credibility， makes us turn and
turn his pages with our minds in awe and our hearts hovering
around our Adam s apple. The thirteen stories in this collection
demonstrate how fantastically good his best work was at the
start of his career.
MacDonald was born in Sharon， Pennsylvania， on July 24，
1916. His father was a strong-~i|led vcorkaholic who rose
Horatio Alger-like from humble origins to become a top ex-
ecutive at a firearms company in Utica， New York. A near-
fatal attack of mastoiditis and scarlet fever at age twelve confined
young MacDonald to bed for a year， and lack of anything else
to do in those days before radio and TV virtually forced him
to read or have his mother read to him， huge quantities of
books. As soon as he was back on his feet， he began haunting
the public library， compulsively devouring every book on the
shelves.
After graduating from the Utica Free Academy in 1933，
MacDonald took some courses at the University of Pennsyl-
vania s Wharton School of Finance， then transferred to Syra-
cuse University where， in 1938， he received aB.S. in Business
Administration. He married fello~v Syracuse graduate Dorothy
Prentiss the same year， and was awarded an M.B.A. from
Harvard Business School in June 1939. After an assortment of
lobs that he hated， he accepted a lieutenant s commission in
the Army in June 1{)4{)， and was asSi~ri~l~ 113 pr13e~m~at ~3fi~
in Rochester， N.Y. until June 1943， when he was sent overseas
to Staff Headquarters， New Delhi， India. A year later he was
recruited by the Office of Strategic Services， the forerunner of
the CIA， and served in Columbo， Ceylon as a branch com-
mander of an Intelligence detachment， rising to the rank of
Lieutenant Colonel.
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