Kyle Onstott

{{Short description|American novelist (1887 – 1966)}} {{Infobox writer | name = Kyle Elihu Onstott | genre = Fiction | occupation = Novelist | notablework = ''Mandingo'' | birth_name = Kyle Elihu Onstott | birth_date = {{birth date|1887|01|12}} | death_date = {{death date and age|1966|6|1|1887|1|12}} | birth_place = Du Quoin, Illinois, U.S. | death_place = U.S. }}

'''Kyle Elihu Onstott''' (January 12, 1887 – June 3, 1966)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kaser |first1=James A. |title=The New Orleans of Fiction: A Research Guide |date=2014 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |page=288 |isbn=9780810892040 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SVYtBAAAQBAJ&q=Kyle+Onstott+died+%221967%22&pg=PA288 |access-date=26 June 2018}}</ref> was an American novelist, known for his best-selling novel ''Mandingo'' (1957). It was set in the antebellum South, in the 1830s at a fictional Alabama plantation. The book was adapted as a 1961 play<ref name=PB>{{cite web|work=Playbill|title=Mandingo|year=1961|url=http://www.playbillvault.com/Show/Detail/7166/Mandingo}}</ref> and a 1975 feature film of the same name.<ref name=NYT>{{cite web|title=Mandingo|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/31277/Mandingo/overview|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131023032246/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/31277/Mandingo/overview|url-status=dead|department=Movies & TV Dept.|work=The New York Times|author=Paul Brenner|date=2013|archive-date=2013-10-23}}</ref>

==Biography== Born and raised in Illinois, by the early 1900s Onstott lived with his widowed mother in California. He was a dog breeder and served as a judge in regional dog shows. A lifelong bachelor, at age 40, he adopted a 23-year-old college student, Philip, who had lost his own parents. After Philip married Vicky, the couple remained close to Onstott for the rest of his life. Onstott dedicated ''Mandingo'' to Philip and Vicky.<ref>Talbot 2009, p.5</ref>

Onstott began writing ''Mandingo'' when he was 65 years old. He had collaborated with Philip on a book about dog breeding but hoped to make more money with a novel.

He based certain events on what he said were "bizarre legends" he heard while growing up: tales of slave breeding and abuse of slaves. "Utilizing his [adopted] son's anthropology research on West Africa, he handwrote ''Mandingo'' and his son served as editor. Denlinger's, a small Virginia publisher, released it and it became a national sensation."<ref>Rudy Maxa, "The Master of Mandingo", ''The Washington Post'', 13 July 1975.</ref> He was invited to write an article for ''True: The Man's Magazine'' in 1959 about the horrors of slavery.<ref>Talbot 2009, pp. 3, 6</ref>

A sequel and a series of other novels followed, mostly written with Lance Horner. The usual setting of their work was plantations and the lives of enslaved African Americans and planters in the antebellum South. They also wrote the 1966 novel ''Child of the Sun,'' recounting the scandalous reign of homosexual Roman emperor Elagabalus.

==Works== * ''Beekeeping as a Hobby'' (1941)<ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/title/1655887 Beekeeping as a hobby]. ''worldcat.org''. Retrieved 2024-02-09</ref> * ''The New Art of Breeding Better Dogs'' (1962, with Philip Onstott) * ''Mandingo'' (1957) * ''The Black Sun'' * ''Child of the Sun'' (with Lance Horner) * ''Falconhurst Fancy'' * ''Flight to Falconhurst'' * ''Master of Falconhurst'' * ''The Tattooed Rood'' * ''Drum'' (1962) * ''Strange Harvest'' (with Ashley Carter)

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *{{IMDb name|0648892}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Onstott, Kyle}} Category:1966 deaths Category:1887 births Category:Novelists from Illinois Category:20th-century American novelists Category:American historical novelists Category:American male novelists Category:Dog breeders Category:People from Du Quoin, Illinois Category:20th-century American male writers