David McDaniel

David Edward McDaniel (16 June 1939 – 1 November 1977) was an American science fiction author, who also wrote spy fiction, including several novels based on the television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Biography

David McDaniel was born on 16 June 1939, in Toledo, Ohio. He studied cinematography at San Diego State University and then moved to Los Angeles. While living in Los Angeles, he joined science fiction fandom, where he used 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 universe fantasy called Coventry.

David McDaniel died sometime in the early morning of 1 November 1977 while alone at his home. At the time of his death he was contracted to fly to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for freelance work as a cameraman.

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, sent them two stories and they accepted both:

A young English boy sees Vikings about to attack his village. He rouses the village and helps drive off the Vikings. A short science fiction story set in space about a teenage boy.

McDaniel wrote his first science fiction novel, titled The Weapons of XXX, and submitted it to Ace Books in early 1965. Terry Carr, a junior editor at Ace, liked it, but the chief editor, Don Wollheim, wasn't convinced, so they returned it. Ace then signed a contract to publish original novels based on the NBC television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E.. Carr remembered McDaniel's The Weapons of XXX and knew McDaniel was a big fan of the television show, so he asked him to submit a novel for The Man from U.N.C.L.E. project. The fourth novel to appear in the series was the result, The Dagger Affair (1965), which was one of the biggest sellers in the series. Carr asked him to write another, The Vampire Affair, and then signed him to a contract for six more. Royalty statements received from Ace Books showed The Vampire Affair as the biggest seller of the six U.N.C.L.E. novels that McDaniel wrote.

McDaniel's first novel, The Weapons of XXX, eventually was published by Ace in 1967 under the title The Arsenal Out of Time. 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 humorously depicted (Tuckerized) a personal friend of McDaniel's. The missing scene was later published in the fanzine The Best of Apa-L #3.

His last novel, The Final Affair, was intended to by Carr to be the final book in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. series. However, McDaniel was several months late finishing the book, and by that time the series was no longer on TV and The Final Affair was never published, but it can be found online (see External links below).

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.