Tom Clancy

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This article is about Tom Clancy the novelist; for the member of the Irish folk band The Clancy Brothers, see Tom Clancy (singer)
Tom Clancy
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Tom Clancy

Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. (born April 12, 1947), who writes under the name Tom Clancy, is an American author of political thrillers heavily based on intelligence and military science concepts; his name is also a brand for similar books written by other authors. His earlier books have a definite focus on the Cold War.

While the literary merit of his books is disputed by many professional authors and reviewers (who regard Clancy's prose as pedestrian), most have been spectacular bestsellers. Fans of his work consider the plots to be well thought out and appreciate an apparent attention to technical detail in military matters.

Tom Clancy was the most popular author of the 1980s, and the third most popular author of the 1990s. He is one of only two authors to have sold two million copies on a first printing in the 1990s. His 1989 novel Clear and Present Danger, sold 1,625,544 hardcover copies, making it the #1 bestselling novel of the 1980s.

In the year 1998, Tom Clancy attempted to purchase the Minnesota Vikings, and had a purchase agreement in place, but the deal fell through when his divorce settlement significantly decreased his net worth. He is currently the Vice Chairman of Community Projects & Public Affairs for the Baltimore Orioles.

Tom Clancy was an early, and to many, surprising defender of Islam after the WTC terror attacks, when he was one of the first experts interviewed on CNN on the day of 9/11.


Contents

Biography

Tom Clancy was born April 12, 1947 at Franklin Square Hospital, in Baltimore, MD. He attended Loyola High School in Towson, MD, graduating with the class of 1965.

Tom studied English Literature at Loyola College in Baltimore, graduating with the class of 1969. In a message to the usenet newsgroup alt.books.tom-clancy, he remarked that he studied English because "I wasn't smart enough to do physics."

Before making his literary debut, Tom spent some time running an independent insurance business.

Tom Clancy married his first wife, Wanda, in 1970. After having several children together, they divorced in 1998. Wanda was represented by Baltimore lawyer Sheila Sachs ([1]). Divorce papers filed by Wanda in 1996 gave the reason that Tom Clancy had "committed adultery with one Katherine Huang," ([2]) allegedly a New York assistant district attorney he supposedly met on the Internet. An E! Online article further alleges that Ms. Huang used the internet aliases "Bin Bin" and "Ping Ping." Much of the media attention focus on the Clancys' divorce resulted from Tom's then-pending bid to buy the Minnesota Vikings.

In 1999, Clancy, at age 52, married 32-year old fellow writer Alexandra Marie Llewellyn, on June 26 ([3]). Also, according to the Tom Clancy FAQ website:

It was previously reported in the Washington Post that he was to marry a niece of Colin Powell just after the divorce to his first wife was finalized. We may never know for sure given Mr. Clancy's zealous protection of his personal life.

Tom Clancy has 4 children.

Video games

In 1996, Clancy co-founded the computer game developer Red Storm Entertainment and ever since has had his name on several of Red Storm's most successful games. Red Storm was later bought by publisher Ubisoft Entertainment who continues to use the Clancy name. These games series include:

All of the games bearing the Clancy name have been very successful spawning several sequels and expansions.

Bibliography

The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, and The Sum of All Fears have been turned into commercially successful films with actors such as Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck as Clancy's most famous character Jack Ryan. As with most series of movie adaptations of popular novels, there is great controversy amongst fans concerning the (non-)canonicity of the movies, most of which take fairly extensive liberties with the series' plotlines.

In recent years, his novels have become more political, showcasing many of his conservative, neoliberal, pro-military, pro-life, and law-enforcement beliefs. In Executive Orders, Jack Ryan becomes President of the United States. Some of Ryan's policies include a new way of fighting the War on Drugs and tax reform (with a flat tax). Some Clancy fans have objected to this focus on politics rather than on the military subjects for which his earlier novels are famous. Nevertheless, his books have continued to sell briskly, perhaps due to momentum from his previous popularity. Alternatively his books' popularity could be due to his ideas resonating positively with his fans. He returned, somewhat, to his earlier approach with The Bear and the Dragon, which starts off as a political novel, and metamorphoses into a war procedural about 2/3 the way through.

Clancy has written several nonfiction books about various branches of the US armed forces (see non-fiction listing, below) Clancy has branded several lines of books with his name that are written by other, acknowledged authors following premises or storylines generally in keeping with Clancy's works:

These are sometimes referred to by fans as "apostrophe" books; Clancy did not initially acknowledge that these series were being authored by others, only thanking the actual authors in the headnotes for their "invaluable contribution to the manuscript".

In 1997 Tom Clancy signed a book deal with Pearson Custom Publishing and Penguin Putnam Inc. (both part of Pearson Education), that paid him US$50 million for the world-English rights to two new books. He then signed a second agreement for another US$25 million for a four-year book/multimedia deal. Clancy followed this up with an agreement with Berkley Books for 24 paperbacks to tie in with the ABC television miniseries "Tom Clancy's Net Force" in an agreement worth US$22 million bringing the total value of the package to US$97 million.

(All but one of Clancy's novels feature Jack Ryan and/or John Clark.)

By publication date

By series chronology

Non-fiction

See also

External links

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Literary reviews and criticism

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