MacCampbell is the author of DON'T STEP ON IT--IT MIGHT BE A
WRITER. I got it from abebooks, and I'm glad I did.
MacCampbell was (or maybe still is) a literary agent. Two of
his clients were Day Keene and Harry Whittington, and
MacCampbell concentrated on the paperback market. There are
some great stories in the book about the beginnings of Gold
Medal, especially editor Dick Carroll. You also learn about a
minor publisher, Bart House, and what happened to it.
MacCampbell has a reticence about naming certain names, but
reading between the lines you can learn about (I think)
Phantom Books, Original Novels, and Venus Books, all which
Whittington sold to. And even why the Australian Phantom
Books are almost exclusively reprints of MacCampbell's
clients.
Reading this book got me started digging through my stacks of
stuff, and I uncovered a photocopy of Harry Whittington's
Keynote Address to the Florida Suncoast Writers' Conference
from back in 1978. It's a treasure trove of info about
Whittington's career and has the whole story (from his
perspective) of why he dropped out of the writing business
for a while and of how he got back in. Also tells what he
thought about Donald MacCampbell. (He thought he was
wonderful. Day Keene called MacCampbell "God.") Just great
reading.
Bill Crider
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