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David McDaniel

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David Edward McDaniel (June 16, 1939 - November 1, 1977) was a US science fiction author. Perhaps his best-known work is The Vampire Affair (1966). He wrote seven novels set in the world of the TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E..

Biography

David McDaniel was born June 16, 1939, in Toledo, Ohio. He studied cinematography at San Diego State University, then moved to Los Angeles to be near his mother. While living in Los Angeles he joined science fiction fandom, using the pseudonym Ted Johnstone. This makes him one of the few authors to write under his real name but conduct his social life under a pseudonym. He was also known by the nickname "Tedron", the name of his character in a "shared world" fantasy called Coventry.

David McDaniel died sometime in the early morning of November 1, 1977. A friend found him hanging by the neck several days later, and associated evidence suggested accidental death from autoerotic asphyxiation. Ironically, at the time of his death, he had just sold a script to a major television series and was getting back into writing.


Professional career

McDaniel sold two stories while still an undergraduate. Pulp writer Noel Loomis was teaching a course on writing at San Diego State, and offered an automatic "A" to any student who sold a story. McDaniel found a boy's magazine whose requirements he could meet, and sent them two stories. They accepted both.

  1. A young English boy sees Vikings about to attack his village. He rouses the village and helps drive off the Vikings.
  2. A short space story about a teen boy, with both problem solving and character development.

McDaniel came to write books in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. series at least partly because of a prank. He got some patches with the THRUSH sigil through a friend who worked for MGM Studios. Then a group of his friends sewed the patches on dark suits and they showed up at a theater where UNCLE star Robert Vaughn was playing Hamlet. Afterward they stood politely in line to greet Vaughn, and equally politely insisted that they were from the "Public Relations" department of THRUSH. There were several more "THRUSH runs" to various places where they could startle people who weren't expecting a group of fictional villains to show up. EDIT: McDaniel referred to these actions as "Zaps". The group of fans who impersonated THRUSH agents included Lee and Barry Gold, Robert Short, Bill Mills, Charles Lee Jackson II and other fellow LASFS members who have been included in McDaniel's novels as characters.

The acronym for THRUSH, "The Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity", as created by McDaniel's friend Dean Dickensheet. McDaniel called in to a talk show where UNCLE producer Norm Felton was a guest and insisted that THRUSH existed. Felton of course denied this, and McDaniel asked what "THRUSH" stood for. Felton said it didn't stand for anything, and McDaniel said, "It's the Technological Hierarchy for..." Felton's reaction was "The Technological Hierarchy for What?" McDaniel used that line in his first UNCLE novel, The Dagger Affair.

McDaniel loved to play with ideas. He would sit around with friends and toss ideas in the air to see where they landed. One of these discussions was about how to sell to Ace Books[1]. Henry Stine pointed out that most of the books had "of" in the title, like Pirates of Zan and Star of Danger. This inspired McDaniel to start a novel about a lost cache of weapons. He didn't have a good name for the aliens, so he used XXX as a placeholder. McDaniel finished the novel but still hadn't come up with a name, so he sent it in that way, using the title The Weapons of XXX. Terry Carr, a junior editor at Ace, liked it, but the chief editor, Don Wollheim wasn't convinced, so they returned it. But Ace landed the contract for the UNCLE novels a month or so later, and Carr remembered Weapons of XXX and knew McDaniel was a big UNCLE fan[2], so he asked McDaniel to submit a novel. The result, The Dagger Affair, was one of the biggest sellers in the series, and Carr asked him to write another, and then signed him to a contract for six more.

Later on, Mcdaniel noted that THRUSH field agents were always doing stupid things and getting killed or arrested by U.N.C.L.E. agents. But THRUSH continued to exist and flourish, so there was obviously another group that was competent. So he came up with the idea that there were three levels of THRUSH:

  1. The incompetent field agents who we saw getting killed or arrested every week on The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
  2. A group that weeded out the incompetents and made sure that only the best THRUSH agents graduated to the third level.
  3. A central core of highly motivated and competent people, who ran the various major groups ("Satrapies") and THRUSH Central

The Second level of THRUSH was... U.N.C.L.E. Most people in the U.N.C.L.E. organization had no idea that this was the case, believing themselves to be "the good guys". This enabled them to fight THRUSH and weed out the incompetant personnel of that organization. But the head of U.N.C.L.E. (Section 1, number 1 -- Alexander Waverly), of course, had to know. McDaniel once threatened to write a story in which Kuryakin was promoted to the Third Level of THRUSH, and had to find a way to let Solo know without blowing the "three levels" secret.

Weapons of XXX was later published by Ace under the title The Arsenal Out of Time, but the name "XXX" for the aliens remained. The book as originally written was slightly longer than Ace's standard book length at the time, so he was asked to shorten it by about 2000 words. He deleted a scene which did nothing to advance the plot but helped to humorously delineate the character of Ginger, based loosely (Tuckerized) on one of his friends. The missing scene was later published in The Best of Apa-L #3.

His last novel, The Final Affair, was to have been the last book in the series. But he was several months late finishing it, and by that time the series was no longer on TV. The Final Affair was never professionally published, but permission was obtained from MGM for a limited press run and grey-market copies can be found from time to time.

More details can be found in "The inside story of how DMcDaniel became involved in UNCLE" [sic] at The Fans From U.N.C.L.E. website.

Bibliography

  • The Dagger Affair (#4)
  • The Vampire Affair (#6)
  • The Monster Wheel Affair (#8)
  • The Rainbow Affair (#13)
  • The Utopia Affair (#15)
  • The Hollow Crown Affair (#17)
  • The Final Affair [3]
  • Number Two, also known as Who is Number Two, the second book in the series based on the TV series The Prisoner
  • The Arsenal Out of Time, a science fiction novel
  • "Quiet Village," a short story set in the same fictional history, published in Analog in 1970 and reprinted in the collection There Will Be War, edited by Jerry Pournelle, Tor Books, 1983.


Notes

  1. ^ At the time, Ace was the largest publisher of science fiction paperbacks, paid the lowest rates, but was the easiest "port of entry" for a would-be SF author.
  2. ^ Carr knew about the "Thrush runs"; they had gained a certain notoriety in SF fandom.
  3. ^ Not numbered in the series, published with permission by a small press.
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