Into each life a little rain must fall.
Many of you know that I spent some time in the JDM papers at
the U of Florida library earlier this year. What I haven't
mentioned since then (except to Bill and one or two select
others) is that in that collection is an unpublished Travis
McGee novel: LITTLE FOXES, THE COLOR OF CREAM. Perhaps I'm
just behind the times, and the existence of this novel is
common knowledge; but it's never come up in any of the
material I've read on MacDonald.
Anyway, it was written as the third in the series, but JDM
pulled it before the first one came out. (In fact, it was
because of a cover letter from JDM to Knox, explaining the
re-write of the end of Deep Blue Good-By, that I found the
manuscript.) It's similar in some respects to THE QUICK RED
FOX, but not in plot. I suppose you could read the one as an
early, early draft of the other, but even that is stretching
it.
At any rate, I've kept my find quiet in hopes that the estate
would let me do a short run of the novel for collectors and
libraries, but I just got word today that they're not going
to do that. I'm not surprised, but I am disappointed. I hope
that somehow this novel gets out where it can be read. It's
not his best McGee, but JDM at his worst is still
considerably better than a lot of other people at their
best.
Anyone in the Gainsville, FL area--or passing through--might
want to take a couple of hours in the Smathers Library
special collections department to read through the
manuscript. There are also a lot of
"false starts"--one or two chapters of uncompleted novels--of
both McGee and stand-alone novels. It's a fun collection to
go through, and there are literally hundreds of boxes. The
man saved everything.
G.
===== George C. Upper III, Editor The Lightning Bell Poetry
Journal http://www.lightningbell.org/
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