(Newswire.net — October 2, 2013) Baltimore, MD —
Clancy’s books became a number of Hollywood blockbusters including “The Hunt for Red October”, “Clear and Present Danger” and “Patriot Games.”
A cause has not been provided by his publisher, G. P. Putnam’s Sons.
Book sales made him a multi-millionaire. His acquisitions included and 80-acre farm, part ownership in the Baltimore Orioles and even a tank.
Seventeen of his novels made the New York Times best sellers at number 1, including the most recent, “Threat Vector,” which was released in December 2012. More than 100 million copies of his books are in print.
The next novel for release is in December is “Command Authority”.
Clancy had started his career as an insurance salesman and the sale of “The Hunt for Red October” was for a whopping $5,000. The initial concern over the novel was all the technical references. The publisher, Naval Institute Press, requested that he make cuts. Mr. Clancy made revisions and cut at least 100 pages.
Book sales exploded after then President Ronald Reagan, called it “my kind of yarn” and said that he couldn’t put it down. Clancy had said Reagan’s endorsement was a key to his early success and helped him achieve best-seller status.
Clancy reportedly regularly referred to Reagan as “my president.”
Mr. Clancy was praised for his mastery of technical details about Soviet submarines and weaponry when it was published in 1985. 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?’ “
Clancy was born on April 12, 1947 in Baltimore. He started his young life absorbing naval history, 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.
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.”
Clancy was a steadfast Republican and longtime National Rifle Association member. He often was very outspoken when discussing his political ideology.
“The political left, they deal in symbols rather than reality. The general difference between conservatives and liberals is that liberals like pretty pictures and conservatives like to build bridges that people can drive across,” he said during a 2001 interview with Bill O’Reilly. “And conservatives are indeed conservative because if the bridge falls down then people die, whereas the liberals figure, we can always build a nice memorial and make people forget it ever happened and was our fault. They’re very good at making people forget it was their fault.”