Stories, journalism, and novels From 1928 to 1934, Kantor wrote numerous stories for
pulp fiction magazines, to earn a living and support his family; these works included crime stories and mysteries. He sold his first pulp stories, "Delivery Not Received" and "A Bad Night for Benny", to Edwin Baird, editor of
Real Detective Tales and Mystery Stories. He also wrote for
Detective Fiction Weekly. In two years, he sold 16 short stories and a serialized novel to Howard Bloomfield, editor of
Detective Fiction Weekly. He also acquired a professional agent, Sydney Sanders. Achieving some success by 1934, Kantor began to submit short stories to the "slick magazines" (
glossies). His "Rogue's Gallery", published in
Collier on August 24, 1935, became his most frequently reprinted story. It was during this decade that Kantor first wrote about the
American Civil War, beginning with his novel
Long Remember (1934), set at the
Battle of Gettysburg. As a boy and teenager in Iowa, Kantor had spent hours listening to the stories of Civil War veterans, and he was an avid collector of first-hand narratives. His work was also part of the
literature event in the
art competition at the
1936 Summer Olympics. During
World War II, Kantor reported from
London as a
war correspondent for a Los Angeles newspaper. After flying with some bombing missions, he asked for and received training to operate the bomber's turret machine guns, although he was not in service and this violated regulations. Kantor interviewed numerous wounded troops, whose thoughts and ideas inspired a later novel of his. When Kantor interviewed U.S. troops, many told him the only goal was to get home alive. He was reminded of the
Protestant hymn: "When all my labors and trials are o'er / And I am safe on that beautiful shore [Heaven], O that will be / Glory for me!" Kantor returned from the European theater of war on military air transport (MAT). After the war, the producer
Samuel Goldwyn commissioned him to write a
screenplay about veterans returning home. Kantor wrote a novel in
blank verse, which was published as
Glory for Me (1945). After selling the movie rights to his novel, Kantor was disappointed that the film was released under the title
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), and that details of the story had been changed by the screenwriter
Robert Sherwood. Kantor was said to have lost his temper with Goldwyn and walked off the Hollywood lot. The first 15 seconds of the movie note that it is "based upon a novel by MacKinlay Kantor", but the novel's title is not given. The film was a commercial and critical success, winning seven
Academy Awards. Beginning in 1948, Kantor arranged an intensive period of research with the
New York City Police Department (NYCPD). He was the only civilian other than reporters allowed to ride with police on their beat. He often rode on night shifts, working with the 23rd Precinct, whose territory ranged from upper
Park Avenue to
East Harlem, comprising a wide range of residents and incomes. These experiences informed most of his short crime novels, as well as his major work
Signal Thirty-Two, published in 1950 with jacket art by his wife Irene Layne Kantor. Kantor was one of three primary influences on McCarthy's adopting his unique style. During his assignment with the U.S. troops in World War II, Kantor entered the
Buchenwald concentration camp as they liberated it on April 14, 1945. During the next decade, that experience informed his research for and writing of
Andersonville (1955), his novel about the
Confederate prisoner of war camp. One of the problems he struggled with in Germany and afterward was how to think of the civilians who lived near Buchenwald. As he struggled to understand, he developed ideas which he expressed in his novel, where he portrayed some civilian Southerners sympathetically, in contrast to officers at the camp. He won the
Pulitzer Prize in 1956 for
Andersonville. In writing more than 30 novels, Kantor often returned to the theme of the American Civil War. He wrote two works for young readers set in the Civil War years:
Lee and Grant at Appomattox (1950) and
Gettysburg (1952). In the November 22, 1960, issue of
Look magazine, Kantor published a fictional account set as a history text, titled
If the South Had Won the Civil War. This generated such a response that it was published in 1961 as a short book. It is one of many
alternate histories of that war. Kantor's last novel was
Valley Forge (1975). It was based on his short story by the same name, published February 3, 1940, in
The Saturday Evening Post. However, in 1992, it was revealed that
Dalton Trumbo had written the
Gun Crazy screenplay, as Trumbo, one of the
Hollywood Ten, had been blacklisted as a result of his refusal to testify before the
House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings. Kantor passed his payment on to Trumbo to help him survive. Kantor acted in the film
Wind Across the Everglades (1958). The film
Follow Me, Boys! (1966) was based on his novel
God and My Country.
Publishing Kantor established his own publishing house, and published several of his works in the 1930s and 1940s. ==Marriage and family==