MacKinlay Kantor has woven a compelling, appealing novel about the life of a simple American man who held in his care the destinies of hundreds of boys. With rare insight and sympathy, MacKinlay Kantor has created the memorable Lem Siddons, who gave forty years of his wisdom, the fund of his laughter, the knowledgable touch, the sweetness and love that were his, to generations of Boy Scouts. Not every boy who passed khaki-clothed along his life won the world's respect or the Scoutmaster's pride. There were some misfits, fallers-by-the-wayside...sure. But Lem Siddons knew his reward every waking moment of his life and in his dreams as well. His story is one you will remember as that of the closest of your friends: his love for the delicate and freckled Vida that grew with a lifetime, his son Downey who wanted to crowd the years. MacKinlay Kantor has set the scene for God and My Country in a small town very much like Webster City, Iowa, where he was born, and has dedicated the book to his Scoutmaster of those days. It is a perfect example of MacKinlay Kantor's special genius for capturing the full flavor of a small American town, and of its people.
Author
Benjamin McKinlay Kantor, was an American journalist, novelist and screenwriter. He wrote more than 30 novels, several set during the American Civil War, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1956 for his 1955 novel Andersonville Kantor was born in Webster City, Iowa, in 1904. His mother, a journalist, encouraged Kantor to develop his writing style. Kantor started writing seriously as a teen-ager when he worked as a reporter with his mother at the local newspaper in Webster City. Kantor's first novel was published when he was 24. During World War II, Kantor reported from London as a war correspondent for a Los Angeles newspaper. After flying on several bombing missions, he asked for and received training to operate the bomber's turret machine guns (this was illegal, as he was not in service). Nevertheless he was decorated with the Medal of Freedom by Gen. Carl Spaatz, then the U.S. Army Air Corp commander. He also saw combat during the Korean War as a correspondent. In addition to journalism and novels, Kantor wrote the screenplay for Gun Crazy (aka Deadly Is the Female) (1950), a noted film noir. It was based on his short story by the same name, published February 3, 1940 in a "slick" magazine, The Saturday Evening Post. In 1992, it was revealed that he had allowed his name to be used on a screenplay written by Dalton Trumbo, one of the Hollywood Ten, who had been blacklisted as a result of his refusal to testify before the House Un-American Committee (HUAC) hearings. Kantor passed his payment on to Trumbo to help him survive. Several of his novels were adapted for films. He established his own publishing house, and published several of his works in the 1930s and 1940s. Kantor died of a heart attack in 1977, at the age of 73, at his home in Sarasota, Florida.
