RIP, Tom Clancy

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Wednesday, October 2. 2013

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.

So young? He did good research and was a fine story-teller. Red October was a movie in my mind before the excellent movie was made. The movie was far better than my imagination.

Posted by Bird Dog at 13:33 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0)

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I can't believe this post has been up all day without one comment.

I would have thought Mr. Clancy would have been a favorite of Maggie's readers.

Anyway, I enjoyed his books. I thought Red Storm Rising was the most enjoyable. I despised what Hollywood did to Sum of All Fears. And while Sean Connery made a lousy Russian/Lithuanian, he can take command of my boat any day.

#1 Browndog on 2013-10-02 22:50 (Reply)

Not without comment, but I had too much to say to toss off in a quick comment. I put it in a post on my blog. But first I had to sit down and mutter, "Almost the same age". Several times...

The British papers had some of the best, most complete, stories. Although Slate (of all places) had an interesting story about some of the technical detail in Hunt for Red October, Gravimetry was used in the story and was actually a US Navy project. And secret.

#1.1 John the River (Link) on 2013-10-03 12:40 (Reply)

Sorry, Browndog, we were involved in calling our CongressCritters to make certain they were paying attention to national security; i.e. paying our military.

Mr. Clancy was a household/family favorite. We always enjoyed his books much more than the movies. When I pack "Care Packages" for the troops overseas, I always include some of his paperbacks, which I hear are passed around with great joy. It reminds me of the M.A.S.H. episode where someone gets a book from home and the unit tears it into chapters to pass amongst themselves -- but the last page is lost. Ah, yes. The sheer enthrallment of a Clancy creation.

#1.2 jma on 2013-10-03 16:03 (Reply)

One of my prized literary possessions is an autographed first print copy of Red Storm Rising from the original Naval Institute printing. The price was incredibly low, IIRC, since this was one of their first (if not the first) published work of fiction. Clancy worked incredible detail into his writing; the sea story is that he was "asked" to omit certain things from Red Storm because it was much too close to reality. His writing was first-rate; not so much the franchised games & mass production works he churned out with other authors in later years. But the single author works in the early years - priceless. RIP.

#2 Ben Kenobe on 2013-10-03 00:59 (Reply)

I read "Red Storm Rising" the first time in about 2 days. It absolutely blew my mind.

#3 NJSoldier on 2013-10-03 07:31 (Reply)

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Wednesday, October 2. 2013

RIP, Tom Clancy