"He Comes to Us One by One and Asks Us Who We Are" is an article on John D. MacDonald published in a supplement dedicated to the author in the July 15, 1973 edition of Chicago Tribune's Book World.[1]
Summary[]
Vonnegut and MacDonald share the literary agent Max Wilkinson, and he once asked Wilkinson what other than the sex and violence accounts for MacDonald's popularity. The response came down to "encyclopedia and archaeology". MacDonald does extensive research to assure accurate information, such as studying Florida State Police files and visiting researchers at Cornell University to write "the most harrowing wreck in all of literature" in Slam the Big Door. Once when accompanying the agent Knox Burger to the hospital, MacDonald chatted with everyone, especially the floor sweeper, who will surely appear, accurately and perhaps crucially, in a future work.
His latest book The Scarlet Ruse covers the intricacies of stamp collecting, another encyclopedic examination "jazzed up by fictional characters". The "archaeology" involved really resides in the future, when thousands of years from now people will want to know in depth how we really lived. Many of us "lead narrow, queerly specialized lives" with complicated and often unwritten rules. MacDonald will seek out those details and build "a crime and punishment story around those rules". He is not only accurate but prolific in a way that expresses an enthusiasm for life and an interest in the enthusiasms, even if ridiculous, of others.[2]
- ↑ "He Comes to Us One by One and Asks Who We Are", Steve Scott, The Trap of Solid Gold: Celebrating the Works of John D. MacDonald, April 10, 2022.
- ↑ "He Comes to Us One by One and Asks Us Who We Are", Chicago Tribune Book World, July 15, 1973.