From The Red Hot Typewriter: The Life and Times of John D. MacDonald, by Hugh Merrill:

Three doors away from us on Point Crisp Road [lived] Henry Hill, the only seven-fingered church organist I have ever run into. Wife name of Esther. Old Professor Hill lived [there] in winters during his retirement. A courtly old citizen. Once, as he said to prove “I am also a writer,” he bought us an LP record of two of his compositions. The Hills had an old semi-blind dog. . . . Hill was going quite deaf. He used to walk the dog on a lead, up to the busy Midnight Pass Road. It made Esther nervous to have them on the narrow shoulder of that road. Right across from Point Crisp, on the Gulf side, was a more elegant development called Siesta Club Properties. Esther went over and spoke with one Rita Kip, a lady of great wealth and connections . . . asking if the retired head of the Harvard Department of Music might walk his blind dog on a leash through the quiet roads of their development. Mrs. Kip, after a hesitation, said, “Of course, my dear. Provided he won’t try to . . . ah . . . mingle.”

I liked this book. But then I went on the web to look for reviews and saw this point which noted that (a) the entire book is based on MacDonald’s letters and other printed sources (Merrill didn’t interview anyone and didn’t seem to go far from the library when writing his book), and (b) it doesn’t really show what it was about MacDonald’s books that got millions of people to buy them. Good points.