Name: REYNOLDS, Dallas McCord Aged: 65
Born: November 11, 1917 Where: Corcoran, California
Died: January 30, 1983 Where: San Luis Potosi, MEXICO
Interred: San Miguel De Allende, MEXICO
Married: Helen Jeanette Wooley When: September, 1947
Awarded: _ _ _

Reynolds was a searching writer when he and his wife moved to Taos, New Mexico in 1949 to live at a writer's colony. There Mack metand was befriended by Fredrick Brown who turned Mack away from writing detective stories to writing science fiction. In 1950, Mack sold 35 SF stories and a career was launched.

Earlier, Reynolds had worked at newspaper editorship, in shipbuilding, for IBM, and was in the Marine Corps during WWII in the South Pacific serving as a navigator after attending officer's candidate school. Mack worked for, continually campaigned for, and supported the Socialist Labor Party. In this regard and in support of it, Mack traveled the world, personally going to 75 countries.

Those trips took up ten years of Mack's life. Reynolds traveled thruout Europe, missing only Albania (they wouldn't let him in), he viewed the Tuareg tribal culture of the Sahara Desert, trekked into Russia (entering thru Romania and exiting at Leningrad), went to Israel, studied the dismal economic society of India, and could only get as close to China as Hong Kong. He developed a hatred for communism, because of its effect on people.

"In Yugoslavia we sought a new Dalmatian and finally found one. His father won the national championship of Yugoslavia last year, and Marshall Tito was so impressed that he requested some of his puppies. When the litter came, two sisters and one brother of our dog went to Tito's ownership, and we've got one of the remaining. Now that we're safely out of the country, we've named out Dalmatian, Tito. We tell everyone, of course, that he's defecated to the west."

Being an active Socialist, about half of Reynolds's stories were for the misused and down-trodden. His work reflected a suspicionof power. All of these stories, though usually containing clever and witty satires, focused on a mis-trust of mono-maniacal groups and what would happen if they gained control of the world. Maybe SF for Mack meant Socialist Fiction, which, in no small degree, it is. However, he would laugh at that. Mack's intellect was full spectrum and he blew hot and cold on various issues at various times. Stories can become static snapshots that never change and should not be taken as an absolutely true view of the author.

A lot of what Reynolds wrote dealt with humor. "It is surprising how little there is of it (humor) in our genre. I suspect that we take ourselves too seriously. Possibly, this is as it should be, for the future is a very serious place. It is either that, or perhaps we will have no future."

Emil Reynolds, Mack's son, furnished the death and interment locations, adding that Mack lived in San Miguel De Allende, Mexico for over 30 years. ADDITIONAL NOTE: Social Security gives the birth date as November 12, 1917.

PEN NAMES: Clark Collins, Mark Mallory, Guy McCord, Dallas Ross.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mine here.

BIOGRAPHY: Contemporary Authors, New Rev. Series, Vol 9, p415-6.

OBITUARY:

Send relevant email to George C. Willick