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Daniel P. Mannix (October 27, 1911-January 29, 1997), born Daniel Pratt Mannix IV, was a Pennsylvania-born author and journalist whose best-known work is the 1967 novel The Fox and the Hound which was later adapted into an animated film by Walt Disney Productions.

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 carnival people and sideshow 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 carnival sideshow, 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 co-founded the Munchkin Convention of the International Wizard of Oz Club.

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Daniel P. Mannix", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0