Author Tom Clancy, 66, died on Tuesday at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore “after a brief illness,” the Baltimore Sun reported, confirmed by his publisher. Putnam is due to release his seventeenth novel COMMAND AUTHORITY in December, and the movie Jack Ryan: Shadow One is also scheduled for a Christmas day release.
Penguin executive David Shanks, who was personally involved in the publication of Clancy’s books, said in a company release: “I’m deeply saddened by Tom’s passing. He was a consummate author, creating the modern-day thriller, and was one of the most visionary storytellers of our time. I will miss him dearly and he will be missed by tens of millions of readers worldwide.”
Putnam president and publisher Ivan Held added, “It was an honor to know Tom Clancy and to work on his fantastic books. He was ahead of the news curve and sometimes frighteningly prescient. To publish a Tom Clancy book was a thrill every time. He will be missed by everyone at Putnam and Berkley, and by his fans all over the world.”
His writing career began with the 1984 publication of The Hunt for Red October and spanned not only his own novels but multiple Clancy-branded fiction series written by other (Op-Center; Net Force; Power Plays; and more); two nonfiction lines; and a very successful line of video games from Red Storm Entertainment, which he co-founded.
Agent Robert Gottlieb, who represented Clancy for much of his career, commented: “We worked together for 18 years. Some of his best books were written during the time that we worked together…. I appreciated the fact that Tom Clancy created virtually on his own a new category of book — the techno-thriller.” Here is an interview from 2004 with Deborah Grosvenor, who acquired and edited insurance salesman Clancy’s first book at the Naval Institute Press.