Travis McGee lives on a 52-foot houseboat dubbed The Busted Flush. The boat is named after the circumstances in which he won the boat in what McGee describes as a "poker siege" of 30 hours of intensive effort in Palm Beach—the run of luck started with a bluff of four hearts (2-3-7-10) and a club (2), which created a "busted flush," as described in Chapter 3 of The Deep Blue Good-by. The books are all narrated by McGee, writing in the first-person past-tense. The boat is generally docked at slip F-18 at Bahia Mar Marina, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. A self-described "beach bum" who "takes his retirement in installments," McGee prefers to take on new cases only when the spare cash (besides a reserve fund) in a hidden safe in the Flush runs low. McGee also owns a custom 1936 vintage Rolls-Royce that had been converted into a pickup truck by some previous owner long before he bought it, and another previous owner painted it "that horrid blue." McGee named it Miss Agnes, after one of his elementary school teachers whose hair was the same shade.
McGee's business card reads "Salvage Consultant," and most business comes to him by word of mouth. His clients are usually people who have been deprived of something important and/or valuable, typically by unscrupulous or illegal means, and have no way to regain it lawfully. McGee's usual fee is half the value of the item (if recovered) with McGee risking expenses, and potential clients who object to such a seemingly high fee are reminded that getting back half of something is better than owning all of nothing. Although the missing items are usually tangible (e.g., rare stamps or jewels), in several books McGee is asked to locate a missing person; in one, the stolen property is a client's reputation. In several instances, he shows a marked propensity to exact revenge, usually for the ill-treatment or death of one of his close friends.
Physically, McGee is a tall, tanned, sandy-haired man with pale gray eyes. Several books hint (or explicitly state) that he is a U.S. Army[1] veteran of the Korean War. However, later books are less precise about exactly when he served. In two of the later novels, The Green Ripper and Cinnamon Skin, there are implications that his military service was during the Vietnam War rather than the Korean. In The Lonely Silver Rain, he visits a bank safe-deposit box in which he keeps a few precious keepsakes, including photos of his father, mother, and brother, "all long dead," and he mentions that the box also contains his Silver Star, Purple Heart, and honorable discharge certificate, all awarded by the U.S. Army to "Sergeant McGee." He also has a daughter named Jean, unknown to him until she reveals herself in The Lonely Silver Rain as the result of a long-ago love affair. He was a standout college football player (a tight end), but says in A Deadly Shade of Gold that he never played professional football due to a knee injury. However, in The Turquoise Lament he admits to a sports trivia fan that he played professional football for a couple of seasons before his knees were wrecked in a tackle by an opponent from the Detroit Lions.
Despite his age, he retains the quickness and agility of a professional athlete. He stands 6′4″ (1.93 m) tall and, although deceptively unimposing at his "fighting weight" of 205 pounds (93kg), he is much stronger than he looks, with thick wrists and long arms; occasionally, a more perspicacious adversary notes these features when deciding whether to tangle with him. McGee purposely cultivates an image of being uncoordinated, shambling, and clumsy, but has superb reflexes and muscle memory. He has a 33-inch waist, wears a size 46 long jacket, and a shirt with a 17+1/2″ neck and 34″ arms. McGee often discusses his fitness regimen, usually in terms of regaining his fitness after a lazy period: swimming and sprinting are frequently mentioned. At one time, he was a pipe smoker, but eventually gave it up in order to maintain his physical fitness. As a martial arts strategy, he often covers his face and blocks punches with his arms and elbows to lull and tire his opponent while studying that opponent's fighting style. In the final novel, McGee is described as practicing the Chinese art of t'ai chi ch'uan.
McGee's early life and family are deliberately left undeveloped. Among the few explicit mentions of family are a memory of attending a Chicago parade with his father as a boy, and a brother with whom he planned to go into business after his military service. The brother was apparently swindled out of his savings in a scam involving a woman and a male accomplice and committed suicide; it is strongly hinted that Travis subsequently killed the woman and her partner. McGee's ethnicity is Irish-American; his father's first name is never given, but his mother's maiden name is given as Mary Catherine Devlin.
While McGee notes in Free Fall in Crimson (1981) that he has a history of womanizing, having "cut a wide swath through a wall of female flesh," he is honest and cynical enough to understand what this says about himself. This is a part of his introspective nature that frequently appears throughout the series, with observations about society around him, with particular notice paid to the changing Florida environment. McGee's cynical image of himself, some variation of which appears in every book in the series, is as a knight in rusty armor with a broken lance and swaybacked steed, fighting for what he fears are outdated or unrealistic ideals—these are clearly allusions to Don Quixote. In his romantic view of the world (as well as several other similarities), he bears a resemblance to Robert B. Parker's Spenser.
Professor Hugh Merrill, MacDonald's biographer, suggests that despite McGee being squarely in the hardboiled tradition, the character is nonetheless a marked departure from the typical protagonists in the genre by being a gregarious and essentially likable person rather than a loner.[2] Unlike other fictional detectives such as Raymond Chandler's jaded and world-weary Philip Marlowe, McGee clings to what is important to him: his senses of honor, obligation, and outrage. In a classic commentary in Bright Orange for the Shroud, McGee muses:
Now, of course, having failed in every attempt to subdue the Glades by frontal attack, we are slowly killing it off by tapping the River of Grass. In the questionable name of progress, the state in its vast wisdom lets every two-bit developer divert the flow into drag-lined canals that give him "waterfront" lots to sell. As far north as Corkscrew Swamp, virgin stands of ancient bald cypress are dying. All the area north of Copeland had been logged out, and will never come back. As the glades dry, the big fires come with increasing frequency. The ecology is changing with egret colonies dwindling, mullet getting scarce, mangrove dying of new diseases born of dryness.
This was in a paperback originally published in 1965, when the general public was still not conversant with the concept of environmentalism.
McGee does have a sidekick of sorts in his best friend Meyer, an internationally known and respected economist who lives on a cabin cruiser of his own near McGee's at Bahia Mar, the John Maynard Keynes, and later, after the Keynes is blown up, aboard its replacement, the Thorstein Veblen. There has been some confusion as to whether Meyer is a given name or surname, but it is clear in The Green Ripper when McGee and Meyer are in the hotel room with two federal agents. They refer to him twice as Dr. Meyer and at the second, he says, "Just Meyer, please." In Pale Gray for Guilt, Meyer presents a business card giving his name as "G. Ludweg Meyer," and a letter of introduction beginning "My Dear Ludweg." Whether these show his real name or not is obscured by both items being instruments in an elaborate financial con game. Both of Meyer's boats are jammed full of books and treatises, ranging far beyond simple economic theory. For instance, Meyer is a chess aficionado and amateur psychologist. Meyer serves as McGee's anchor when McGee's own inner compass seems to be skewed, as well as providing the formal education that the street-smart McGee lacks. Meyer has been known to participate in McGee's campaigns on occasion and has come close to being killed more than once as a result. His cover is usually as some sort of academic, though at times he has also played a stockbroker or an entomologist.
Some world-weariness does eventually creep into McGee's character, perhaps because the 1960s Florida in which he originated no longer exists. The only direct indications of his age ever given are comments that he had served in the Korean War and, until the 1980s, he seems ageless. He does at one point refer to having a "birthday ending in zero," which could mean that he was born in 1930. But as the series progresses, minor recurring characters began to drop away and it becomes apparent that McGee himself is getting older, along with his creator. In later novels such as The Green Ripper and Free Fall in Crimson, there is a sense of desperation that the violence in the world is too senseless to be explained and will never end. Much of that dissipates with the ending of The Lonely Silver Rain, which became the final volume when MacDonald died in 1986. (Reports of another final McGee novel, possibly narrated by Meyer, titled A Black Border for McGee and to be published posthumously,[3] have never been confirmed.)
About the Travis McGee novels
MacDonald was already a prolific author of mystery and suspense novels when he decided to create a series character. McGee originally was to be called Dallas McGee, after the city, but after the Kennedy assassination, MacDonald decided that name had too many negative connotations. He was searching for a first name for McGee when a friend suggested that he look at the names of the many Air Force bases in California. MacDonald's attention was caught by Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, and so he named his character Travis.[4]
Beginning with The Deep Blue Good-by, released in March 1964, each of the 21 novels featuring Travis McGee has a title that incorporates a color. The first three books in the Travis McGee series were published in quick succession, at the rate of one a month, a highly unusual publishing strategy. According to MacDonald, he had earlier written an introductory novel about McGee that he burned as being unsatisfactory. A longtime resident of Sarasota's Siesta Key, MacDonald said he placed McGee on the opposite side of the state to protect his privacy in case the series became popular.
McGee has been called[by whom?] the first great modern Florida adventurer, preceding characters and situations that appeared in novels by authors such as Elmore Leonard, Carl Hiaasen, Paul Levine, Tim Dorsey, James W. Hall, and Les Standiford. Hiaasen specifically acknowledged his debt in an introduction he wrote for a new edition of The Deep Blue Good-by in 1994, commenting that even though MacDonald was then eight years gone, he believed McGee was still around, probably sipping gin on the deck of the Busted Flush and pondering whatever it was that Florida had become or was becoming. Singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett expressed similar sentiments in the lyrics of the song "Incommunicado." In Salem's Lot by Stephen King, County Sheriff Homer McCaslin berates author Ben Mears's writing. McCaslin tells him to write "Like the guy who writes those Travis McGee stories."
The U.S. Library of Congress's Center for the Book commissioned a short work by MacDonald. The resulting essay, "Reading for Survival," is a conversation between McGee and Meyer on the importance of reading.[5] The 26-page essay was released in a limited edition of 5,000 copies and was available for a small contribution to the Center for the Book.
Mystery novelist Lee Child wrote the introduction for the Random House Trade Paperback Edition of The Deep Blue Good-by published in 2013.
In addition, the 1966 MacDonald novel The Last One Left carries the author's inscription, "I dedicate this novel to TRAVIS McGEE, who lent invaluable support and encouragement." With much of the action occurring in the boat cruising world of southeastern Florida, it is similar to some of the McGee stories. The book also mentions the Muñequita, a small runabout that McGee later buys in Pale Gray for Guilt.
It has been rumored for years that MacDonald was planning a 22nd book to be titled A Black Border for McGee[6] about the death of his famous character and told from the point of view of his friend Meyer. The MacDonald family has steadfastly denied the rumors and has consistently and vigorously refused offers from other authors to continue the series, feeling that no one could properly capture the tone and voice of MacDonald and McGee.
Adaptations
Travis McGee has twice been translated to cinema and television: Rod Taylor played McGee in Darker Than Amber (1970) and Sam Elliott played him in the television movie of The Empty Copper Sea, entitled Travis McGee (1983). The latter relocates McGee in California, eliminating the Florida locales central to the novels. In addition, Elliott kept his trademark brushy mustache, thoroughly distancing himself from the clean-shaven, brush-cut look McGee maintains in the books. In the first film, Meyer was played by Theodore Bikel; in the second, by Gene Evans.
In 1967, author MacDonald refused permission for a television series about Travis McGee and his cases, feeling people would stop reading the novels were Travis McGee regularly on television. Comedian Dan Rowan, a friend of MacDonald's, had expressed interest in playing the role of Travis McGee, but nothing ever materialized.
Robert Petkoff provided the voice of Travis McGee in the majority of the current audio book versions of the novels. The prior abridged series from Random House audio featured Darren McGavin in all but two, Darker Than Amber and Cinnamon Skin, which were read by Kevin Conway.
A film version of The Deep Blue Good-by, directed by Oliver Stone with Leonardo DiCaprio as Travis McGee, was in development with a tentative release date of 2011 or 2012. In April 2010, it was announced that the film's title was changed to Travis McGee.[7][8] In April 2011, it was announced that Paul Greengrass was interested in directing the film,[9] but in March 2014, James Mangold was attached to direct the film, which DiCaprio would produce along with Jennifer Davisson-Killoran and Amy Robinson. Dana Stevens and Kario Salem wrote the first draft.[10] It was revealed that Christian Bale was slated to play the title role for the film The Deep Blue Good-by with a screenplay by Dennis Lehane,[11] but these plans fell through due to Bale having a knee injury.[12]
Literary landmark
When the U.S. organization Friends of Libraries U.S.A. decided to institute a series of literary landmark plaques analogous to historic landmark markers, the first to be installed was around what would be Slip F-18 in Bahia Mar, the anchorage of the Busted Flush. This was done in February 1987, less than a year after MacDonald's death.
After the remodeling of the Bahia Mar Yachting Center in 2003 to replace fixed docks with floating docks, there no longer existed a Slip F-18. The plaque was remounted on a movable wooden base, which is presently located inside the marina Dockmaster's Office and Gift Shop.[13]
Related Research Articles
John Dann MacDonald was an American writer of novels and short stories. He is known for his thrillers.
The Lonely Silver Rain (1985) is the 21st and final novel in the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald. The work was published a year prior to the author's death, and was not intentionally the end of the series. It is also notable for the introduction of McGee's daughter Jean, who he unwittingly sired with the now-deceased love interest Puss Killian from the ninth book in the series: Pale Gray for Guilt. At the end of the book McGee has taken all of his cash in hand except for a few hundred dollars and placed it in a trust fund for his newly met teenage daughter, and needs to go back to work as a "salvage consultant." The author's death prevented any further development of this new character and plot line.
The Deep Blue Good-by is the first of 21 novels in the Travis McGee series by American author John D. MacDonald.
Nightmare in Pink is the second novel in the Travis McGee series written by John D. MacDonald. It was published concurrently with the first book in the series, The Deep Blue Good-by. In Nightmare in Pink, McGee is asked by a friend from his military days to help his sister Nina in the investigation of her fiancé's death and the large sum of money involved. The book's title is a reference to the inclusion of hallucinogenic drugs as a plot device in the climax. Much of the action takes place in New York City and upstate New York, a departure from McGee's usual haunts in Florida.
The Green Ripper (1979) is a mystery novel by John D. MacDonald, the 18th of 21 in the Travis McGee series. It won a 1980 U.S. National Book Award in the one-year category mystery.
A Purple Place for Dying (1964) is the third novel in the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald.
The Quick Red Fox (1964) is the fourth novel in the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald. In it, McGee is hired to aid a fictitious Hollywood star named Lysa Dean who is being blackmailed with revealing photographs.
Darker than Amber (1966) is the seventh novel in the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald. The plot begins when McGee and his close friend Meyer are fishing underneath a bridge and a young woman, bound and weighted, is thrown over the bridge. It was adapted into a 1970 film of the same name.
Darker than Amber is a 1970 film adaptation of John D. MacDonald's 1966 mystery/suspense novel, Darker than Amber. It was directed by Robert Clouse from a screenplay by MacDonald and Ed Waters.
One Fearful Yellow Eye (1966) is the eighth novel in the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald. The plot revolves around McGee's attempts to aid his longtime friend Glory Doyle in her quest to uncover the truth about her late husband and the blackmail which made over half a million dollars of his fortune disappear. It is largely set in Chicago, rather than the usual McGee haunt of Florida. When Fortner Geis dies, it becomes clear that his fortune was swindled out of him in his last months. McGee tracks down the money and eventually builds a romantic relationship with Fortner's daughter, Heidi Trumbill.
Pale Gray for Guilt (1968) is the ninth novel in the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald. The plot revolves around McGee's investigation into the death of his close friend Tush Bannon, who he suspects has been murdered because of his refusal to sell his waterfront property to developers. In terms of series continuity, Pale Gray for Guilt is particularly important in that it involves a love interest, Puss Killian, who is central to the final book: The Lonely Silver Rain.
The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper (1968) is the tenth novel in the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald. The plot focuses on McGee's investigation of a beautiful young woman who is mysteriously losing her mind without any apparent physical or mental disease. Along the way, he discovers various troubling facets to the small Florida town where she resides.
Dress Her in Indigo (1969) is the eleventh novel in the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald.
The Long Lavender Look (1970) is the twelfth novel in the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald. After the preceding book, Dress Her in Indigo, which was largely set in Mexico, The Long Lavender Look not only returns to McGee's usual haunt of Florida, but is almost entirely set in one tiny town deep in the rural part of the state.
A Tan and Sandy Silence (1971) is the thirteenth novel in the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald. The plot begins with Harry Broll, husband of McGee's longtime friend Mary, shows up at his houseboat The Busted Flush with a gun, threatening McGee and accusing him of hiding Mary aboard. The rest of the novel involves McGee's search for Mary.
The Scarlet Ruse (1972) is the fourteenth novel in the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald. The plot revolves around McGee's investigation into some extremely valuable rare postage stamps which have been stolen. McGee investigates the problem of Hirsh Fedderman's missing stamps on behalf of his friend and sidekick Meyer. By the end of the book, McGee has put himself and Meyer in mortal peril.
The Dreadful Lemon Sky (1975) is the sixteenth novel in the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald. It is the 87th novel in The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time as compiled by the Mystery Writers of America.
The Empty Copper Sea (1978) is the 17th novel in the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald. In it, McGee looks into the apparent drowning of Hub Lawless in a boating accident. His $2 million insurance policy leads some to believe he has faked his death.
Cinnamon Skin (1982) is the twentieth novel in the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald. Like a few other books in the series, McGee ends up traveling to Mexico to solve a crime. His friend Meyer's niece is killed by a bomb on the John Maynard Keynes, Meyer's houseboat, with two other people. As Meyer and McGee investigate the explosion, they discover her husband, Evan Lawrence, did not die, and instead had a dark and dangerous past.
Travis McGee is a 1983 American TV movie based on the 1978 novel The Empty Copper Sea by John D. MacDonald. It was the second film adaptation of the Travis McGee series. It was made by Warner Bros.
↑ Cassuto, Leonard. Hard-boiled sentimentality: the secret history of American crime stories (Columbia University Press, 2009), p.170; MacDonald, John D. "How to Live With a Hero", The Writer (Combat Publishing, Waukesha, WI), 7/2008, pp.22-23.
↑ An F block of floating yacht slips exists but no F-18. Indeed the boats along the F line clearly belong to multi-millionaires. The Dockmaster's Office, at the western end of the Bahia Mar Yachting Center, also serves as the marina store and business center. It is at 801 Seabreeze Blvd, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316. Literary Landmarks factsheetArchived 2009-01-31 at the Wayback Machine
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