In 1980, Walter & Jean Shine published "A Bibliography of
the Published
Works of John D. MacDonald with Selected Biographical
Materials and Critical
Essays." It's not nearly as stuffy as the title makes it
sound. Despite
having been completed six years before John D's death and
being, therefore,
incomplete, it remains the definitive JDM bibliography and
the biographical
section, while brief, is extremely valuable, not least for
having been
written by someone who knew John D. intimately. (John D
dedicated "The
Lonely Silver Rain" to the Shines and frequently consulted
Walter Shine for
details on his work which he had forgotten.)
At the time of Walter Shine's death, he had been working for
some years on a
finalized version of this work, which included what he told
me was a radical
expansion of the biographical section. He had completed it,
and was looking
for a publisher when he died. (He didn't think that the U of
F Libraries,
which published the original work and a couple subsequent
works, made enough
of an effort to publicize the books in the mainstream book
market, which was
undoubtedly true.)
I don't know what's happened to the final version of this
book.
Two other titles the Shines produced on JDM are "Rave &
Rage: The Critics
and John D. MacDonald," which is kind of weird, but a lot of
fun, and "A
MacDonald Potpourri," which is without question the most
valuable reference
work for collectors of the books of JDM ever produced. Both
are -- or were,
the last I checked -- available from the University of
Florida Libraries in
Gainesville. I don't have the full address handy, but I'm
sure Directory
Assistance could help interested parties. They are priced
very, very
reasonably, by the way.
If anyone out there knows the fate of the finalized
bibliography/biography,
please let me know.
Paul Bergin
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