The Most Famous Writer Who Ever Lived

July 11, 2016
The urge to investigate one’s origins is on powerful display in Shroder’s (Acid Test) exploration of his famous grandfather, Pulitzer Prize–winning author MacKinlay “Mack” Kantor. Mack was born in Iowa in 1904 and grew up in poverty, and he decided early on to become a writer. He is perhaps best known today for Andersonville, his bestselling, epic 1955 novel about the notorious Civil War prison, and for writing the novel on which the Academy Award–winning 1946 film The Best Years of Our Lives is based. Despite his successes however, Mack’s popularity had waned by the 1970s, with his decline marked by alcoholism, diminished income, and a shift to far-right politics. Shroder draws on family letters, photos, and stories; his own memory; and Mack’s papers at the Library of Congress, in the process realizing how little he really knew his complicated grandfather. He also learns the stories of Mack’s hardworking, smart, and loving mother, and his charming, large-living, manipulative con man of a father. The book is more than a biographical excavation; it’s a journey of understanding. Shroder’s visceral reactions and moving discoveries as he comes to terms with his grandfather’s life make for a trip well worth taking. Agent: Gail Ross, Ross Yoon Agency.

A grandson of writer MacKinlay Kantor (1904-1977) unravels the tangles of his grandfather's life and finds many of those same threads (the good, the bad, the ugly) in his own life.Shroder--himself a veteran writer (Acid Test: LSD, Ecstasy, and the Power to Heal, 2014, etc.) and journalist (editor of the Washington Post Magazine)--remembers his once-celebrated grandfather well, though Kantor had tumbled from the literary mountain by that time. Kantor's novel Andersonville (1955) won the Pulitzer Prize, had been an enormous bestseller, but he never again produced something so well received by critics and consumers. His wealth flew from his hands like chaff. Shroder was an incredibly fortunate researcher: the Library of Congress holds 158 boxes of Kantor material, and Shroder found other caches, as well, including in his own home. Carefully sifting through all of this, and reading (and in some cases rereading) his grandfather's work, the author began to see numerous parallels in their lives, from a passion for the Civil War to their submission to the disciplines of writing. Shroder is stunned by some of his discoveries (among them: his grandfather's serial adultery), is somewhat surprised by Kantor's turn to the political right (he was friends with Curtis LeMay), and is touched by Kantor's enduring belief in his abilities despite reviewers' harshness and slumping sales. The connections the author sees between the two of them sometimes seem a bit forced or obvious--writers do share some things, whether blood relatives or not. But the more Shroder finds out about his grandfather, the more his sympathy grows--Kantor's own father was a con man of the first order--and he ends with a deeply felt appreciation. The author also notes that Kantor's wife tolerated a lot--and lovingly so. A compelling account, suffused with both sympathy and sharpness, of a writer who's mostly forgotten and of a grandson who's grateful. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 1, 2016

Journalist Shroder (Acid Test) proves poring over one's lineage brings to life parallels. His maternal grandfather, MacKinlay "Mack" Kantor, is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Andersonville and numerous other books. Shroder explores the lives of his great-grandfather John Kantor, a villainous swindler and author; Mack, who at times shows his own charming charlatan side; and his novelist mother. He details his family's history as his grandfather traveled, researched, and imbibed through the lows and highs of being a best-selling author. He outlines Mack's participation in the infamous Sarasota Liar's Club with John D. MacDonald, friendship with Ernest Hemingway, and Hollywood experiences with Gregory Peck and James Cagney, among others. The appeal of this memoir is Shroder's personal appreciation of writers today who have endured many of the same struggles experienced by his family of authors, including the superhuman skill of focusing on daily writing amid a barrage of distractions. VERDICT Shroder's intricate family story centers on what it takes to be a successful published author. Sprinkled with an abundance of helpful advice, it will be appreciated by aspiring writers.--Joyce Sparrow, Kenneth City, FL

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2016
Shroder is the grandson of MacKinlay Kantor, who, back in the 1940s and 1950s, was a popular American fiction writer. Kantor authored more than 30 novels, among them the Pulitzer Prizewinning Andersonville (1955), about the infamous Confederate prison in Georgia, a work that was credited with having reinvented the historical novel. But his fame was not long lasting, and even his masterpiece is rarely read now. Shroder acknowledges his grandfather as a definite fixture in his youth, but he also admits, in this enticing hybrid of memoir and biography, that he grew dismissive of his grandfather's ego-driven personality and old-fashioned writing style. Shroder finally realized that he needed to find answers to his lingering and insistent questions about his grandfather, a quest to know aided and abetted by the Library of Congress' 158 boxes of letters, contracts, manuscripts, photographs, and more documenting Kantor's life and career. Shroder's exploration of his grandfather's life reveals a deeply flawed man, but the more Shroder learned about his grandfather, the more he learned about himself; and this deeply personal process is fascinating to observe.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)