Kyle Onstott

Who was Kyle Onstott?

Kyle Onstott was an American novelist, best-remembered for his best-selling novel Mandingo, which deals with slavery on an Alabama plantation with the fictional name of Falconhurst in the 1830s. The book was made into a film of the same name, which was released in 1975.

Onstott was originally a dog breeder and judge in regional dog shows, living in California with his widowed mother in the early 1900s. Having collaborated with his adopted son on a book about dog breeding, he decided to write a book that would make him rich. "Utilizing his 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." A sequel and a series of other novels followed, mostly written with Lance Horner.