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The Key to David McDaniel's Man from U.N.C.L.E. novels

Introduction

by Barry & Lee Gold

With assistance from Jean Marie Stine, Bill Mills, and many others.

McDaniel was already a well-known member of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (LASFS) when Barry Gold joined the club in November, 1964 and when Lee Klingstein first attended the club in August, 1967, but Dave's fan activity was conducted under the name he'd picked out of a phonebook when he wrote the letter that ultimately resulted in his joining the club: Ted A. Johnstone. Unlike many other authors, he wrote professional fiction under his real name and conducted his social life under a pseudonym – but almost everybody knew his real name as well.

We were among Dave's/Ted's many friends, and he was best man at our wedding in August, 1969. His death, on about Halloween of 1977, was a devastating loss.

Now, years later, we thought we'd share our memories of some of the references in Dave's books. If you know any more references we haven't spotted, please contact us at lee.gold@ca.rr.com, or if that doesn't work, go to http://www.conchord.org/xeno/leegold.html and look up Lee Gold's contact information there.

We would also like to thank Paul Watson, a "First Cousin" (fans who watched the show during its original run on NBC) for spotting references to the TV shows and to Man From U.N.C.L.E. novels by other authors.

In most of his Man from U.N.C.L.E. books, David McDaniel either made characters up from whole cloth or Tuckerized friends. Some place names and bits of description are also references or puns.