Daniel Pratt Mannix IV

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for others of similar name, see Daniel Mannix (disambiguation)

Daniel Pratt Mannix IV, usually called Daniel P. Mannix (October 27, 1911-January 29, 1997), was a Pennsylvania-born author and journalist whose best-known work is the 1967 novel The Fox and the Hound on which the Disney film The Fox and the Hound was based.

His work ranged through animal stories for children, books about hunting, and sensational adult topics (which have given him a cult readership) such as Aleister Crowley, a sympathetic account of circus freaks, the Hellfire Club, the history of torture, and the Roman Games.

According to Martin M Winkler's book, Gladiator: Film and History, Mannix's 1958 non-fiction book Those about to Die (republished in 2001 as The Way of the Gladiator) was the inspiration for David Franzoni's screenplay for the movie Gladiator.

Mannix's varied career included time spent as a sword swallower and fire eater in a circus, as described in his account Step Right Up (aka Memoirs of a Sword Swallower); a professional hunter; and a collector of wildlife for zoos and circuses. Mannix was also a skilled stage magician, magic historian, and collector of illusions and apparatus.

He served as a naval lieutenant with the Photo-Science Laboratory in Washington, D.C. during World War II.

He founded the Munchkin Convention of the International Wizard of Oz Club.

Daniel P. Mannix was also the last person alive to see Grace Olive Wiley before she was bitten by a poisonous snake [1]. As Grace Wiley was a trained snake handler and had been for many years, there are rumors of foul play surrounding her mysterious death.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

Solomon, John (2004). Gladiator from Screenplay to Screen. In Winkler, Martin M. (Ed.), Gladiator: Film and History, pp. 1–15. Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 1-4051-1042-2.