A Friendship : The Letters of Dan Rowan and John D. MacDonald, 1967-1974

Gathers letters written between Dan Rowan, the popular TV comedian, and John D. MacDonald, the mystery writer, and provides a behind-the-scenes look at network television

Mutual admiration was the foundation of a valued friendship between MacDonald (author of the Travis McGee series et al.) and comedian-writer Rowan. In addition to visits, the men kept in touch by mail from 1967 through 1974, when they had a falling out. Assembled here are selections from their witty, amusing and sobering correspondence: exchanges of advice on professional and personal matters, etc. The letters shed light on wheeler-dealers grabbing credit for the TV show Laugh-In, co-created by Rowan and Dick Martin; there are accounts of dismaying film treatments of MacDonald's bestselling novels. The correspondents also reminisce about shared pleasures. Before the letters stop abruptly, they reveal the career strains that caused Rowan's divorce and MacDonald's severe criticism of him as spoiled by fame. Lately, they tell the reader, they have mended the break in the relationship although, as both note, "It's not the same."
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This will appeal: for its profile of the rise and fall of Rowan and Martin's Laugh In, its grim look at TV, its picture of a successful novelist and of a comedian dealing with success, and its portrait of how a friendship lives and dies. At the suggestion of a mutual friend, Rowan and MacDonald began writing without having met. Their letters are frequent initially and each writer assumes a role: MacDonald/advisor and Rowan/seeker of such. There is an abrupt break-off in 1974 as Rowan's marriage disintegrates. The letters are not complimentary to Rowan, but they are compelling views of two dissimilar men and are nicely linked with two introductions by the authors. Missing arethe authors' impressions of each other after their first meeting and word of what Rowan has been doing recently. For general collections. Rebecca Sturm, Northern Ken tucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.