Tom Clancy, Best-Selling Novelist of Military Thrillers, Dies at 66 By JULIE BOSMAN Tom Clancy, whose complex, adrenaline-fueled military novels made him one of the world’s best-selling and best-known authors, died on Tuesday in a hospital in Baltimore. He was 66. Ivan Held, the president of G. P. Putnam’s Sons, his publisher, did not provide a cause of death. Mr. Clancy’s books were successfully transformed into blockbuster Hollywood films, including “Patriot Games,” “The Hunt for Red October“ and “Clear and Present Danger.” His next book, “Command Authority,” is planned for publication on Dec. 3. Seventeen of his novels were No. 1 New York Times best sellers, including his most recent, “Threat Vector,” which was released in December 2012. More than 100 million copies of his books are in print. Sales of his books made him a millionaire. His family moved into a five-bedroom house in Calvert County, Md., and acquired an 80-acre farm on the Chesapeake Bay. He became a part owner of the Baltimore Orioles. He even bought a tank. Mr. Clancy was an insurance salesman when he sold his first novel, “The Hunt for Red October,” to the Naval Institute Press for only $5,000. That publisher had never released a novel before, but the editors were taken with Mr. Clancy’s manuscript. They were concerned, however, that there were too many technical descriptions, so they asked him to make cuts. Mr. Clancy made revisions and cut at least 100 pages. The book took off when President Ronald Reagan, who had received a copy, called it “my kind of yarn” and said that he couldn’t put it down. After the book’s publication in 1985, Mr. Clancy was praised for his mastery of technical details about Soviet submarines and weaponry. Even high-ranking members of the military took notice of the book’s apparent inside knowledge. In an interview in 1986, Mr. Clancy said, “When I met Navy Secretary John Lehman last year, the first thing he asked me about the book was, ‘Who the hell cleared it?’ “ David Shanks, a Penguin executive who worked with Mr. Clancy for decades, called him “a consummate author, creating the modern-day thriller, and one of the most visionary storytellers of our time.” Born to a middle-class family in Baltimore on April 12, 1947, Mr. Clancy skipped over the usual children’s literature and became obsessed by naval history from a young age, reading journals and books whose intended audience was career military officers and engineering experts. He absorbed details of submarine warfare, espionage, missile systems and covert plots between superpowers. He attended Loyola College in Baltimore, where he majored in English, and graduated in 1969. While Mr. Clancy harbored ambitions to join the military, even joining the Army R.O.T.C., he was told that he was too nearsighted to qualify. Mr. Clancy began working at a small insurance agency in rural Maryland that was founded by his wife’s grandfather. After “The Hunt for Red October” was published, Mr. Clancy’s fame was fairly instant. Frequently posing for photographs in darkened aviator sunglasses, jeans and holding a cigarette, Mr. Clancy spoke of the laserlike focus required to succeed. “I tell them you learn to write the same way you learn to play golf,” he said. “You do it, and keep doing it until you get it right. A lot of people think something mystical happens to you, that maybe the muse kisses you on the ear. But writing isn’t divinely inspired — it’s hard work.” He followed “The Hunt for Red October” with “Red Storm Rising“ in 1986, “Patriot Games” in 1987, “The Cardinal of the Kremlin“ in 1988 and “Clear and Present Danger” in 1989. The critical reception to his novels was gushing from the start. Reviewing “Red Storm Rising” in The New York Times in 1986, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt wrote that the book “far surpassed” Mr. Clancy’s debut novel. “Red Storm Rising” is a “superpower thriller,” he wrote, “the verbal equivalent of a high-tech video game.” (Mr. Clancy would eventually venture into video games, which were easily adapted from his novels.) Other critics questioned the unwaveringly virtuous nature of many of Mr. Clancy’s heroes, particularly his protagonist Jack Ryan. “All the Americans are paragons of courage, endurance and devotion to service and country,” Robert Lekachman wrote in The Times in 1986. “Their officers are uniformly competent and occasionally inspired. Men of all ranks are faithful husbands and devoted fathers.” Mr. Clancy is survived by his wife, Alex; their daughter, Paige; and four children from a previous marriage, Michelle, Christine, Kathleen and Tom Clancy III. Deborah Grosvenor, the editor who acquired Mr. Clancy’s first novel, said she initially had a hard time persuading her boss at the Naval Institute Press, to read it, since Mr. Clancy was an unknown and the publisher had no experience with fiction. “I said, ‘I think we have a potential best seller here, and if we don’t grab this thing, somebody else would,’ ” Ms. Grosvenor, who is now a literary agent, said in an interview. “But he had this innate storytelling ability, and his characters had this very witty dialogue. The gift of the Irish or whatever it was, the man could tell a story.” Mr. Clancy was frequently accused of using classified information in his novels, a claim that amused him. While he spent time on military bases, visited the Pentagon and dined with high-level military officials, he insisted that he didn’t want to know any classified information. “I hang my hat on getting as many things right as I can,” Mr. Clancy once said in an interview. “I’ve made up stuff that’s turned out to be real — that’s the spooky part.” Rest in peace Mr. Clancy
I greatly enjoyed his first several books. The Hunt for Red October was outstanding, as was Red Storm Rising. Over the years, I always purchased his books and read them through and through, but over time, I began to lose interest and I did not buy his last five or six novels. Has a cause of death been announced? I cannot find anything other than a vague reference to a "short illness."
Another sad loss. I only read Clancy's first few books ('Hunt for Red October' and 'Patriot Games', among them), but was always meaning to get around to the newer ones.
A prolific and mostly inspired author, but I am forced to agree his later work was not as good as earlier yarns, nor was his name helped by putting his name over novels written by others. For about a decade or so he had no peer and his novels gave a huge boost to his politico-military thriller genre. Debt of Honor was one of his best and I always wondered after 9/11 if its ending inspired that attack since it predated it. May he rest in peace.
I really enjoyed the books he wrote too I think he's just been lending his name to the ones that have come out in the last 15 years though. I don't think he wrote them. They have some cutesy way of describing the authors on the new ones. I never read them
What ? Creator of Jack Ryan and John Clark is DEAD ? May He Rest in Peace. He made me read most inspiring and world/history/technology describing books I have ever had. If I can write this message from Paris on my vacation , guiding my group with my history knowledge when tour guide was unavailable he is the guilty one. Since my childhood his works made me see the world beyond city limits....You will be missed Mr. Clancy. He did not write anything solo since "The Teeth of Tiger" Since than other writers are using the world characters he created in collaboration. I think after "Red Rabbit" he just gave up.
This is very sad news. Like earlier posters, I thoroughly enjoyed his earlier books, not so much his later books. Nonetheless, a loss for the publishing industry.
Spoiler alert for The Cardinal in the Kremlin . CIA analyst Jack Ryan attends a diplomatic conference in Moscow as part of an American delegation to the Soviet Union. He learns that the CIA’s most highly-placed agent, codenamed "CARDINAL", is none other than Colonel Mikhail Semyonovich Filitov, the personal aide to the Soviet Minister of Defense and a national war hero. Filitov was recruited by GRU colonel and British agent Oleg Penkovskiy, and offered his services to the CIA after the deaths of his wife and two sons; the latter two were killed during their service in the Red Army. As a result, Filitov has been passing political, technical, and military intelligence to the CIA for the past thirty years. The U.S. discovers through "National Technical Means" that the Soviets are working on an ABM defense system codenamed "Bright Star", based at Dushanbe in Tajikistan. Emilio Ortiz, a CIA liaison, is sent to aid Mujaheddin rebels in the region. One rebel leader, known as "the Archer" due to his expertise in using surface-to-air missiles to bring down Soviet ground support aircraft, is questioned after unwittingly witnessing a test of the Soviets' ABM system. The Archer determines that the Soviet installation is a threat to him and his people, and tasks his group with attacking and pillaging the facility. In the end, the guerrillas destroy a large amount of Soviet equipment. However, the rebels suffer horrendous losses, including the death of the Archer. From Wikipedia One of my father's favorite books. I enjoyed Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger and The Hunt for Red October. I remember an article that mentioned he liked to buy military personnel drinks in the bars around Bethesda and The Naval Academy and pick up information in this way. Rest in Peace, Mr. Clancy.
His most famous character, Jack Ryan, is getting a reboot of sorts in a new film set for release in December. Titled simply Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit it goes back to the beginning before any of Clancy's novels to show his recruitment into the CIA. While supposedly faithful to the legend it dumps the Cold War setting for a contemporary time period. Chris Pine (the rebooted Star Trek's James Kirk) as Jack Ryan, Kevin Costner as the Navy officer who recruits him and Kenneth Brannaugh as the bad guy. Much is expected and it supposedly had Clancy's approval, but will fans buy into the change of setting?
Have not heard about that Belasar. Cool beans. I have enjoyed his books and have all of the Jack Ryan series. As in any series, the plot starts to get a little wayward from the original and thus lost my interest. Same with Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt series but I digress. I do have to say the Tom Clancy was the author who started me on the Cold War Action books. Thanks Tom. RIP.
HIs early book set a standard for such works as well and showed how well one could do if they met it.
