MacKinlay Kantor , born Benjamin McKinlay Kantor, was an American journalist, novelist and screenwriter. He wrote more than 30 novels, several set during the American Civil War, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1956 for his 1955 novel Andersonville, about the Confederate prisoner of war camp. , as well as for the TV mini-series Andersonville , but neither have any actual connection to Kantor's work. Benjamin McKinlay Kantor was born and grew up in Webster City, Iowa, the second child and only son in his family. He had a sister Virginia. His mother, Effie Kantor, worked as... the editor of the Webster City Daily News during part of his childhood. His father, John Martin Kantor, was a Jewish, native-born Swede descended from "a long line of rabbis, who posed as a Protestant clergyman." His mother was of English, Irish, Scottish, and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry.
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| Birthdate: | February 4, 1904 |
| Birthplace: | Webster City, Iowa |
| Date of death: | October 11, 1977 |