Tom Clancy, 66Yo Passed Way

[Call me bubba]

News has reported that author Tom Clancy has died in Baltimore age 66

 

Tom Clancy, Best-Selling Novelist of Military Thrillers, Dies at 66  

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.

 

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 was “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 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.”

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/books/tom-clancy-best-selling-novelist-of-military-thrillers-dies-at-66.html

 

http://www.philstar.com/entertainment/2013/10/02/1240969/best-selling-author-tom-clancy-has-died-age-66

 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/tom-clancy-dead-celebrities-authors-2331339

my i add : that his books was one that once you picked it up,you could not put it down till you was tired or had finished reading it,

 

 Thanks Tom Clancy for the literature that you wrote

                         

Edited October 2, 2013 by Pittman apartments Sgn

[i am bob]

He will be missed by many people - fan of his or not...

I have read just about every piece of fiction he has written along with most of his non-fiction and I learned something very important to use in my own writing... Every time a new thought is introduced into the story - regardless if it is important to the main story line or not - find a big hook to grab the readers attention.

[Mike S]

Yes he did make or supervise some killer (excuse the pun) PC games too .... I have about 3-4 .... only problem is he made them the squad type instead of 1st person shooters .... I don't like planning moves for 5-6 men .... I have a hard time taken care of myself .... besides I like sniping to much to be dragging a squad around ...... :mocking:

R.I.P Tom ...... :cheersty:

[earthdome]

I had read Clancy's book "The Hunt for Red October" and served on a submarine when the movie came out.

The interaction of the crew member's and the terminology they used was spot on. Some of the scenes inside

the submarine gave me flashbacks of when I served on a submarine. Then the double whammy of having already read

the book. I had to see the movie several times before I could appreciate it just as a movie.

[Tukaram (Tim)]

Hard to believe he wasn't a sailor, huh? 

 

When I was stationed in San Diego I used to sit with the same lady on the train everyday.  Never really spoke or knew her name but we both would read books.  The only to get to get any peace was to sit with another reader!  Well, she started being so engrossed in her book I would have to let her know she was about to miss her stop.  So after a couple days of this I looked to see what had her interest.  It was, of course, Hunt For Red October.  Well her attention to the book was all the review I needed.  I went and bought it and was an instant Clancy fan.

[Jake]

I'm going to miss his future works of art.  Of all the techno novels Tom Clancy has written, my favorite one is still 

Without Remorse released in 1993.  The book describes John Clark's life as a Navy Seal in Vietnam and later

his recruitment into CIA.  He was considered the dark side of Jack Ryan.

 

By the way, the photo of TC on board a Ticonderoga class cruiser brought back some bad memories of an Iranian

Airbus being shot down by USS Vincennes CG-49 in 1988.  

 

May TC rest in peace........

[Thomas]

Yes he did make or supervise some killer (excuse the pun) PC games too .... I have about 3-4 .... only problem is he made them the squad type instead of 1st person shooters .... I don't like planning moves for 5-6 men .... I have a hard time taken care of myself .... besides I like sniping to much to be dragging a squad around ...... :mocking:

R.I.P Tom ...... :cheersty:

I like his games, making the strategic decisions and letting others do the work  :mocking:

[Dougbert]

His best books were always a cut or two above the rest--especially in the detail and realism he injected.  You really got a sense of "being there" when you read them.  He will be missed.