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'Clive Eric Cussler' (born July 15, 1931 in Aurora, Illinois)^[1][2] is an American adventure novelist and successful amateur marine archaeologist.

Contents

Biography

Literary career

Life imitating art

Cinematization

Bibliography

Dirk Pitt adventure novels

Novels featuring Pitt's children, Dirk and Summer

NUMA Files adventure novels

Fiction

Non-Fiction

Children's Books

Recurring Characters

NUMA

Friends, etc.

Easter Eggs

Trivia

Notes

External links

Biography

Clive Cussler was born in Aurora, Illinois and grew up in Alhambra, California. He was awarded Eagle Scout before he was 14.^[3] He attended Pasadena City College^[4] for two years and then enlisted in the United States Air Force during the Korean War. During his service in the Air Force he was promoted to Sergeant and worked as an aircraft mechanic and flight engineer for the Military Air Transport Service (MATS)^[5]
Clive Cussler married Barbara Knight in 1955 and they remained married for 48 years until her death in 2003 ^[6]. Together they had three children, Teri, Dirk and Dana who have given him four grandchildren.
After his discharge from the military Cussler went to work in the advertising industry, first as a copywriter and later as a creative director for two of the nation's most successful advertising agencies^[7]. As part of his duties Cussler produced radio and television commercials many of which won international awards including an award at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.
Following the publication in 1996 of Cussler's first nonfiction work, , he was awarded a Doctor of Letters degree in 1997 by the Board of Governors of the State University of New York Maritime College who accepted the work in lieu of a Ph.D. thesis^[5]. This was the first time in the college's 123 year history that such a degree had been awarded^[5].
Cussler is a fellow of the Explorers Club of New York, the Royal Geographic Society in London, and the American Society of Oceanographers^[10].

Literary career

Clive Cussler began writing in 1965 when his wife took a job working nights for the local police department where they lived in California. After making dinner for the kids and putting them to bed he had no one to talk to and nothing to do so he decided to start writing^[11]. His most famous creation is marine engineer, government agent and adventurer Dirk Pitt. The Dirk Pitt novels frequently take on an alternative history perspective, such as "what if Atlantis was real?", or "what if Abraham Lincoln wasn't assassinated, but was kidnapped?"
The first two Pitt novels, ''The Mediterranean Caper'' and ''Iceberg'', were relatively conventional maritime thrillers. The third, ''Raise the Titanic!'', made Cussler's reputation and established the pattern that subsequent Pitt novels would follow: A blend of high adventure and high technology, generally involving megalomaniacal villains, lost ships, beautiful women, and sunken treasure.
Cussler's novels, like those of Michael Crichton, are examples of techno-thrillers that do not use military plots and settings. Where Crichton strives for scrupulous realism, however, Cussler prefers fantastic spectacles and outlandish plot devices. The Pitt novels, in particular, have the anything-goes quality of the James Bond or Indiana Jones movies, while also sometimes borrowing from Alistair MacLean's novels. Pitt himself is a two-dimensional, larger-than-life hero reminiscent of Doc Savage and other characters from pulp magazines.
Clive Cussler has had more than 17 consecutive titles reach the New York Times fiction best-seller list.

Life imitating art

As an underwater explorer, Cussler has discovered more than 60 shipwreck sites and has written non-fiction books about his findings. He is also the founder of the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA), a non-profit organization with the same name as the fictional government agency that employs Dirk Pitt. Cussler owns a large collection of classic cars, several of which (driven by Pitt) appear in his novels.
Cussler's web site claims that NUMA discovered, among other shipwrecks, the Confederate submarine Hunley. This claim is disputed by E. Lee Spence on his web site. Both claims appear to have some element of truth. Although Spence described finding the Hunley with a magnetometer back in the mid 1970s, the first expedition to bring back conclusive proof was the 1995 H.L. Hunley expedition that was partially financed by Cussler. The 1995 expedition appears to have relied, at least to some extent, on Spence's earlier work.
Cussler's work in marine exploration has often raised eyebrows and tempers alike. Not the born diplomat, he often steps on the collective toes of the academic community, local and national governments and at one point, as can be read about in his first non-fictional work, "Sea Hunters", the British Secret Service, Mossad and the CIA. Many have disputed the work of Cussler and NUMA, and while some of his finds do have their controversy over "who really got there first", Cussler has been the first to provide conclusive evidence of the location of several ship wrecks.
In what started as a joke in the novel ''Dragon'', and that Cussler expected his editor to remove, he now often writes himself into his books, at first as simple cameos, but later as something of a deus ex machina, providing the novel's protagonists with an essential bit of assistance.

Cinematization

★ The first attempt to film one of Cussler's novels — ''Raise The Titanic!'' (1980) — was a critical and commercial failure. Its failure was widely attributed to a weak script, wooden acting, poor special effects and the casting of Richard Jordan as Pitt.

★ Paramount Pictures released ''Sahara'' on April 8, 2005, starring Matthew McConaughey as Dirk Pitt, Steve Zahn as Al Giordino, William H. Macy as Admiral Sandecker, and Penélope Cruz as Eva Rojas. Again the film was a box-office failure, which Cussler blamed on the film not staying true to his storyline. Even before the film was completed, Cussler and Crusader Entertainment (the film's producers) filed lawsuits against each other in a dispute over the film departing too severely from the novel. court tv item
In May 2007, the trial jury delivered a mixed verdict, ordering Cussler to pay Crusader $5 million (they were seeking $115 million) for making derogatory comments about the film and encouraging his readers to boycott it. At the same time, Crusader was ordered to pay Cussler around $8.5 million for failing to honour their agreement to make a second film from one of Cussler's novels. Despite both sides declaring victory, news accounts suggested that both sides spent more on legal costs than they were awarded. imdb news item However, a subsequent hearing was scheduled to determine if, in fact, Cussler is owed anything from Crusader since, as a result of the verdict, he regained the now worthless option to the second book. A decision is pending.

Bibliography

Dirk Pitt adventure novels

(in chronological order)

★ ''The Mediterranean Caper'' (1973) NB: Released as "MAYDAY!" in the United Kingdom.

★ ''Iceberg'' (1975)

★ ''Raise the Titanic!'' (1976)

★ ''Vixen 03'' (1978)

★ ''Night Probe!'' (1981)

★ ''Pacific Vortex!'' (1983)

★ ''Deep Six'' (1984)

★ ''Cyclops'' (1986)

★ ''Treasure'' (1988)

★ ''Dragon'' (1990)

★ ''Sahara'' (1992)

★ ''Inca Gold'' (1994)

★ ''Shock Wave'' (1996)

★ ''Flood Tide'' (1997)

★ ''Atlantis Found'' (1999)

★ ''Valhalla Rising'' (2001)

★ ''Trojan Odyssey'' (2003)

★ ''Black Wind'' (2004)

★ ''Treasure of Khan'' (2006)
There is also a Dirk Pitt reference book:

★ ''Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt Revealed'' (1998)

Novels featuring Pitt's children, Dirk and Summer

(co-authored with Dirk Cussler)

★ ''Trojan Odyssey'' (2003)

★ ''Black Wind'' (2004)

★ ''Treasure of Khan'' (2006)

NUMA Files adventure novels

(co-authored with Paul Kemprecos)
This series of books focuses on Kurt Austin, head of NUMA's Special Projects division and his adventures. Some characters from the Pitt novels appear such as Sandecker, Rudi Gunn, Hiram Yaeger and St. Julien Perlmutter. Pitt makes brief appearances in the books "Serpent", "White Death" and "Polar Shift."

★ ''Serpent'' (1999)

★ ''Blue Gold'' (2000)

★ ''Fire Ice'' (2002)

★ ''White Death'' (2003)

★ ''Lost City'' (2004)

★ ''Polar Shift'' (2005)

★ ''The Navigator'' (2007)
===The Oregon Files===
(co-authored with Craig Dirgo on first two, Jack DuBrul on the second two)
The Oregon Files focuses on "The Oregon," introduced in "Flood Tide." While appearing to be a decrepit tanker, it's really a high-tech advanced ship used by the Corporation, under the leadership of Juan Cabrillo. The ship is run like a business, with its crew shareholders, taking jobs for the CIA and other agencies to help stop terrorism and other crimes. The crew is adept at disguises, combat, computer hacking and more to aid their missions. Both Kurt Austin and Dirk Pitt make a cameo in the fourth book, 'Skeleton Coast.'

★ ''Golden Buddha'' (2003)

★ ''Sacred Stone'' (2004)

★ ''Dark Watch'' (2005)

★ ''Skeleton Coast'' (2006)

Fiction

★ ''The Chase'' (2007) (upcoming release- November 2007) ^[12]

Non-Fiction

★ '' (1996)

★ '' (2002)

★ ''Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt Revealed'' (1998)

Children's Books

★ ''The Adventures of Vin Fiz'' (2006)

Recurring Characters

NUMA

★ Admiral James Sandecker

★ Rudi Gunn

★ Dirk Pitt

★ Al Giordino

★ Hiram Yeager and Max

★ Kurt Austin

★ Joe Zavala

★ Paul Trout

★ Gamay Trout

★ Dirk Pitt, Jr.

★ Summer Pitt

Friends, etc.

★ St. Julien Perlmutter

★ Loren Smith

★ Various fictional Presidents

Easter Eggs

★ Clive Cussler himself

★ Craig Dirgo

★ Leigh Hunt

Trivia

★ Although ''Pacific Vortex'' was released in 1983, it is actually the first Dirk Pitt novel. The events of ''Pacific Vortex'' happen before those of ''The Mediterranean Caper''.

★ In the novel ''Lost City'', it is said that in the book ''The Island of Doctor Moreau'', Moreau turned humans into beasts when actually he turned animals into near humans.

★ Cussler is the father of Dirk Cussler, who co-wrote ''Black Wind'' (2004) and the December 2006 release ''Treasure of Khan'' (2006)

★ The Doxa Dive watch company has an official Clive Cussler edition of their famous orange faced dive watch.

Notes

1. Bookrags.com Clive Cussler Biography
2. Clive Cussler
3. Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt Revealed, , Clive, Cussler, Pocket Books, , ISBN 0671026224
4. NUMA Clive Cussler Biography
5. Ibid.
6. TV.Com Clive Cussler Biography
7. NUMA.Net Clive Cussler Biography
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Simon Says.com Clive Cussler Biography
11. Bookreporter.com Clive Cussler Biography
12. http://www.cusslermen.com/Chase.htm

External links

★ Clivecussler.prv.pl - polish fan site

★ The Society of the Cusslermen - fan site

★ 1986 audio interview of Clive Cussler by Don Swaim of CBS Radio, RealAudio

★ Clive Cussler Auto Collection

★ Clive Cussler Collector's Society - fan site