Background
McKenna was born in Mountain Home, Idaho, on May 9, 1913.
(Original 8' x 10" publicity photo, sent by by the studio ...)
Original 8' x 10" publicity photo, sent by by the studio to theaters at the time of release. Not a reprint.
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McKenna was born in Mountain Home, Idaho, on May 9, 1913.
Because of the benefits of the GI Bill, McKenna was able to attend college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where he studied creative writing.
Seeking more opportunities than could be found in such a rural part of the country at the height of the Great Depression, McKenna joined the United States. Navy in 1931. He served for 22 years, including 10 years of active sea duty. He served in both World World War II and the Korean War, and retired shortly afterwards as a Chief Machinist"s Mate.
Writing career McKenna began his writing career publishing science fiction.
His first science fiction story Casey Agonistes immediately established him as a writer to be watched. McKenna"s best known work was, made into the well-known 1966 film of the same title.
The protagonist was an enlisted career sailor on a United States. Navy river gunboat named the San Pablo in China during the 1920s. McKenna himself served aboard a river gunboat on the Yangtze Patrol, but about ten years following the events in his novel and of more modern construction (San Pablo was an ancient gunboat seized from the Spanish in 1898).
Casey Agonistes and Other Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories (1973) collects the title story and four other short works: "Hunter Come Home", "The Secret Place", "Mine Own Ways", and "Fiddler"s Green".
The collections The Sons of Martha and The Left Handed Monkey Wrench were also published posthumously. Death McKenna suffered a heart attack and died on November 1, 1964, at age 51.
(Original 8' x 10" publicity photo, sent by by the studio ...)