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Journey Without a Map
Gardner McKay’s Journey Without a Map, with introduction by Jimmy Buffett, is a memoir extraordinaire one of those rare books that just keeps getting better and better as you read along, its last half transfixing. McKay was a maverick who went into the South American forest alone for nearly two years; starred in, and walked away from, the starring role in an expensive hour-long TV series after four years; raised lions and cheetah in the wilds of Beverly Hills; was the theatre critic for the LA Herald; wrote successful plays, novels, poetry and stories; walked across Venezuela; was a world-class sailor; a sculptor, with pieces in the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum; wrote and kept over 200 journals (the basis for this memoir); turned down nearly 50 starring movie roles; served as a film critic; taught university courses; rode with the Egyptian camel corps; and finished this memoir as he was dying of cancer, giving him what he called “a real deadline.”He was, above all, an adventurist.Of his quitting television, after he had acquired international “Fame is so cheap that I wanted to go someplace where someone, some stranger, might be able to make up his own mind about me without already having formed an opinion based on drivel that needed to be overcome or ignored.�
488 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 2009
26 people are currently reading
72 people want to read
About the author
Gardner McKay
15books7followersBorn George Cadogan Gardner McKay. McKay graduated from Cornell University, where he majored in art. He became a Hollywood heartthrob in the 1950s and 1960s. He landed the lead role in Adventures in Paradise, based loosely on the writings of James Michener. His character, Adam Troy, was a Korean War veteran who purchased the twin-masted 82-foot (25 m) schooner Tiki, and sailed the South Pacific.
McKay was under contract to MGM when he was spotted by Dominick Dunne, a television producer for Twentieth Century Fox who was searching for an actor to star in his planned Adventures in Paradise. Dunne put his business card on the table and said, "If you're interested in discussing a television series, call me." McKay competed in screen tests with nine other candidates, and won it because of his good looks and ability to sail. An accomplished sailor, he had made eight Atlantic crossings by the age of seventeen. Although previously unknown to the public, McKay appeared on the July 6, 1959, cover of Life Magazine just two months before the series premiered.
In the 1957-1958 season, McKay played Lieutenant Dan Kelly in the 38-episode syndicated western series, Boots and Saddles, with Jack Pickard and Patrick McVey.
After acting in more than 100 films for television, McKay left Hollywood to pursue his loves of photography, sculpture, and writing. He turned down the opportunity to star opposite Marilyn Monroe in Something's Got to Give, a film which was never completed. He exhibited his sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, besides holding individual exhibitions. His lifeboat rescue photographs of the Andrea Doria were published internationally. McKay wrote many plays and novels, and was a literary critic for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner between 1977 and 1982. He taught writing classes at the University of California at Los Angeles, University of Southern California, University of Alaska, University of Hawaii.
McKay's awards included three National Endowment for the Arts fellowships for playwriting, the Drama Critics Circle Award Best Play, and Sidney Carrington Prize. He was a winner in Canadian Regional Drama Festival, and runner up in the Hemingway Short Story Contest.
McKay settled in Hawaii, where he died from prostate cancer in 2001, aged 69. He was survived by his wife Madeleine Madigan, a painter, and two children.
McKay was under contract to MGM when he was spotted by Dominick Dunne, a television producer for Twentieth Century Fox who was searching for an actor to star in his planned Adventures in Paradise. Dunne put his business card on the table and said, "If you're interested in discussing a television series, call me." McKay competed in screen tests with nine other candidates, and won it because of his good looks and ability to sail. An accomplished sailor, he had made eight Atlantic crossings by the age of seventeen. Although previously unknown to the public, McKay appeared on the July 6, 1959, cover of Life Magazine just two months before the series premiered.
In the 1957-1958 season, McKay played Lieutenant Dan Kelly in the 38-episode syndicated western series, Boots and Saddles, with Jack Pickard and Patrick McVey.
After acting in more than 100 films for television, McKay left Hollywood to pursue his loves of photography, sculpture, and writing. He turned down the opportunity to star opposite Marilyn Monroe in Something's Got to Give, a film which was never completed. He exhibited his sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, besides holding individual exhibitions. His lifeboat rescue photographs of the Andrea Doria were published internationally. McKay wrote many plays and novels, and was a literary critic for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner between 1977 and 1982. He taught writing classes at the University of California at Los Angeles, University of Southern California, University of Alaska, University of Hawaii.
McKay's awards included three National Endowment for the Arts fellowships for playwriting, the Drama Critics Circle Award Best Play, and Sidney Carrington Prize. He was a winner in Canadian Regional Drama Festival, and runner up in the Hemingway Short Story Contest.
McKay settled in Hawaii, where he died from prostate cancer in 2001, aged 69. He was survived by his wife Madeleine Madigan, a painter, and two children.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 5, 2017
I have read Journey Without A Map and continue to re-read some chapters over and over. Some chapters have helped me to see more clearly and come to accept times in my past that have left me feeling unloved, unwanted or unable to deal with society on it's terms. It's OK, some of us just definitely have to travel to the beat of a different drum.
Gardner's honesty and poignant reflections on his life give us the story of a man who could not follow the pack. He was an extraordinary man, sensitive, artistic and true to himself. What a life he led! So much searching for something, anything, everything. A lot of people would have given up the search and settled. But it seems that he never did, at least not until he found his beloved Madeleine. And then he was not settling.
Some say, just think what he could have accomplished if he'd had a goal (ie: a map), probably not near as much as he did. A goal, a plan, a map could have limited the man. Without a map or plan or goal, there is always the next adventure, the next island, the next story, the search continues.
Gardner, may you be enjoying Fair Winds & Following Seas!
Gardner's honesty and poignant reflections on his life give us the story of a man who could not follow the pack. He was an extraordinary man, sensitive, artistic and true to himself. What a life he led! So much searching for something, anything, everything. A lot of people would have given up the search and settled. But it seems that he never did, at least not until he found his beloved Madeleine. And then he was not settling.
Some say, just think what he could have accomplished if he'd had a goal (ie: a map), probably not near as much as he did. A goal, a plan, a map could have limited the man. Without a map or plan or goal, there is always the next adventure, the next island, the next story, the search continues.
Gardner, may you be enjoying Fair Winds & Following Seas!
January 26, 2014
What a surprisingly rich package this is ! I stumbled upon this work after the music of the TV series "Adventures in Paradise" drifted inexplicably into my mind whilst I was travelling alone in Asia. In common with many other people who watched him in the 60's, I had Gardner pigeon-holed, until I read this. This biography of an immensely talented and sensitive man is candid and deep. It is well crafted and smoothly connected, for the first three quarters, but then loses some continuity. However, this fragmentation heightens the reality, rawness and honesty of the story. Gardner was dying of prostate cancer. The last part was completed and reassembled from diaries, by his wife Madeleine. The quote in the prologue catches it perfectly "I don't want the clutter of dates measuring; I want a rich creamy texture not intentionally obfuscated, but vague, so as to put the narrative into a calmer zone. Let the journalists have their reports. This is not one of them."
April 27, 2015
I love the journal entry format of this book. I loved how it didn't always have a context or a time frame for some chapters and how some of them were vague without a beginning or ending. This man pursued himself and his own happiness for so long he exhausted all efforts. He fell into fame, and walked away from it, literally, then raised lions in Beverly Hills.
His life, to me is what the dos equis most interesting man in the world's life would have embodied.
His life, to me is what the dos equis most interesting man in the world's life would have embodied.
October 14, 2021
I had never heard of Gardner McKay before this book. It is so well written and what a life he led!
November 17, 2013
What an interesting life! I didn't even know who Gardner McKay was before, only having heard of him in Jimmy Buffett songs. He became so much more than 'Captain Adam Troy,' from Adventures in Paradise. He was an unapologetic, resourceful adventurer, womanizer, writer, sailor, and playwright, among other things, and finally, a loving family man. After reading this, I felt like I went on a journey without a map.
January 3, 2015
While Mr McKay lead an interesting life away from the glitter of Hollywood, this book was badly written and poorly edited. He skips around and repeats himself. Had the editor done a better job and the writer been more organized the book would have been much more enjoyable.
February 20, 2015
One of the finest books I've ever read, by one of the most intriguing men who ever lived. A series of anecdotes about the actor's life. I was never once bored and only wish I could have known the author.
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