Photo: Bettmann / Getty Images (1956)
Sample of authors
Kantor, MacKinlay
The author and journalist MacKinlay Kantor was born Benjamin McKinlay Kantor in Webster City, Iowa. His father, John Martin Kantor, a Swedish immigrant, did not stay long in any job and his marriage was a disaster. He abandoned his family when his son was born and from then on all contact with his two children ceased. Benjamin grew up with his mother, Effie McKinlay Kantor, at her parents' house...
Literary figures
Leonard Pine
Gender: Male
Afro-American, physically fit, homosexual Vietnam veteran with an explosive temper. Leonard Pine grew up in the home of an uncle who disapproved of him because of his sexual orientation. He is good friends with his total opposite, the calm, pacifistic Hap Collins with roots in the American working class, and they work together for a detective agency in a long suite of stories filled with...