| Name | Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. |
| Pen Name | NA |
| Nationality | American |
| Born | April 12, 1947 |
| Died | October 1, 2013 |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Education | B.A. (English Literature) |
| Genre | Thrillers, Techno Thrillers, Military Fiction, Spy Fiction |
| Notable Works | The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, Without Remorse, Executive Orders |
| Notable Awards | Golden Plate Award, Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Literary Achievement |
| Height | 6′ 2 |
| Spouses | Wanda Thomas King (1969-1999), Alexandra Marie Llewellyn (m. 1999) |
| Children | Thomas Clancy III, Alexis Jacqueline Page Clancy, Christine Blocksidge, Kathleen Clancy, Michelle Bandy |
| Official Website | tomclancy.com |
Born on 12th April 1947 in Baltimore, Maryland, Tom Clancy was raised in northeast Baltimore in its Northwood neighborhood. He belonged to an Irish-American and had two siblings. While his father was employed at the United States Postal Service, his mother was an employee at the credit department of a store.
As a young boy, Clancy made it to become a part of Troop 624 of the Boy Scouts of America. His mother worked extremely hard so he could attend Loyola High School in Towson, Maryland. It was a posh private school from where he graduated in 1965.
He secured an undergraduate degree in English literature from Baltimore’s Loyola College in 1969. As a college student, he became the president of his university’s chess club.
Although he did become a part of the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, the association was short-lived. It’s because he couldn’t serve owing to his nearsightedness, as a result of which he had to wear thick spectacles.
Once he was done with graduation, Clancy started working for an insurance company located in Hartford, Connecticut. O. F. Bowen Agency was the name of an insurance company in Maryland that was created by his wife’s grandfather, and that’s the agency he joined in 1973.
Clancy went on to buy the company in 1980, and his writing career started while he was still working at the insurance company.
Personal Life and Marriages
Tom Clancy got married to his first wife in 1969. She was a nurse named Wanda Thomas King, with whom he had four kids. They were separated for a brief period in 1995 and then permanently separated in December 1996. Their divorce was finalized in January 1999.
He married again in June 1999 to Alexandra Marie Llewellyn, who was a freelance journalist. The couple met in 1997 after being introduced by Colin Powell, who was a family friend. They had a daughter and remained together till Clancy passed awa
The inception of Clancy’s career as a writer took place in 1982 when he began to write The Hunt for Red October. The book was sold to the Naval Institute Press for just $5,000.
It was the editor, Deborah Grosvenor, who persuaded the publisher, saying that this book is special and that if they don’t grab it right away, someone else will seize the opportunity. Fortunately, her instinct was absolutely right.
Clancy had thought that perhaps 5,000 copies of the book would sell, and instead, there were more than 45,000 that ended up getting sold.
The book received further popularity when Ronald Reagan, who was the President of the United States at that time, received the book as a Christmas present and branded it as “unputdownable” and “the perfect yarn.”
This amplified the sales of the novel, causing 300,000 hardcover copies and two million paperback copies to sell out, giving it the tag of a bestseller nationally. The technical details of the book were highly praised, and he got the opportunity to meet numerous U.S. military officers.
Clancy’s heroes, Jack Ryan and John Clark, are possibly his most famous protagonists. They were both Irish Catholics, much like the author himself.
Through these characters, it was clear that Clancy liked to create heroes who were honest, extremely skilled, disciplined, and professional individuals who lost their patience only when incompetent beings got in the way of their work.
Clancy’s wealth multiplied due to his work. About $1.3 million had been deposited in his bank account by 1988 for The Hunt for Red October, and he had also signed a contract worth $3 million for his upcoming three books.
He was paid a whopping $14 million for the North American rights of Without Remorse, which was a record in itself. Red Storm Entertainment paid him $25 million for a book/multimedia deal that was to last for four years.
The author also earned plenty for all the adaptations of his very popular books, which often came in the form of movies, TV miniseries, and video games.
Writing Style And Approach
Clancy had a very unique view on writing, which explains the writing style visible in his stories and also the thoughts he had on life in general. He didn’t think of himself as a writer. Instead, a storyteller is what came to mind when he envisioned himself in the literary world.
He didn’t believe in a massive display of fireworks when it came to crafting books. He wanted to write books so that people could read them and be transported from their mundane lives for even a couple of minutes every day. This is the purpose that fueled his fire as a writer.
Clancy didn’t believe that something mystical happens when you sit down to write a story. It is neither magic nor inexplicably puzzling. Rather, he was of the opinion that writing is extremely hard work. He said it was like playing golf, where you kept practicing till you got it right.
In fact, he didn’t think that writer’s block was real. He felt that as a writer, you’re supposed to get to work and keep going and not use writer’s block as an excuse. Funnily enough, the author thought that fiction differs from reality because fiction needs to make sense.
While coincidences happen in real life, Clancy knew that all the points in his novels need to fall in a proper line for everything to seem logical. The writer knew that even overlooking a tiny detail could make a reader wonder if the book was worth it.
Clancy believed that authors could make anyone believe in dragons and spies as long as they wrote it with conviction. He was a big believer in the possibility of dreams, which is something that is evident in his books as well.
He encouraged those around him to follow their dreams because while everything around you can change, your dreams will always remain the same. Responsibilities and duties can’t get in the way of your dreams, he said, and you shouldn’t let anyone take them away from you.
Although Clancy wrote plenty of fiction, realism was somehow the central theme of most of his novels. Politics and military-based facts were a core inclusion in many of his stories, and the author made sure to pepper them with as many technical details as possible.
The unique and refreshing aspect of his books was that although he was creating fictional characters, he kept them as rooted in reality as he could. It was by conducting extensive research that he managed to make his novels so technically sound and accurate.
Thanks to Clancy’s contributions, literature got a whole new genre, which was that of military fiction.
Most of the protagonists created by the writer were men who belonged in the military. They would sweep in at the last minute to save the day and remedy all the wrongs caused by the dictators, bureaucrats, and villains.
The Republican and conservative views that Tom Clancy had with regard to politics were known to pretty much everyone who followed his career. These political views also influenced his writing in some form or another.
Significant personalities from the government and military offered their precious friendship to the author. He was also given access to ships, aircraft, and submarines so that these experiences could help him gain material for his books.
Due to the respect he had towards Ronald Reagan, many of the political characters he created had similarities to Reagan as well.
Evidently, Clancy’s literary creations have left behind a legacy that will help several future generations discover the author’s works. The fact that many of his books have been adapted into movies, TV shows, and video games has also helped in pinning the writer’s presence as immortal.
Apart from this, Clancy’s legacy was visible through baseball as well, since he was a part-owner of the Baltimore Orioles and was also the vice chairman of their public affairs and community projects for a while.
For an author who had such a full literary career, it goes without saying that Clancy was serenaded with plenty of honors and awards for his talents. The following are some of his achievements that set him apart from the rest:
- Clancy belongs to the category of authors who sold two million copies on first printing during the 1990s, and the reason this is special is that there are only two more authors who share this honor along with him.
- The writer’s novel titled Clear and Present Danger, which came out in 1989, ended up selling 1,625,544 copies in its hardcover edition and was the number one bestseller of the 1980s.
- In 1988, Clancy was bestowed with the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. He also hosted the Achievement Summit in Colonial Williamsburg in 1995 and the Achievement Summit in Baltimore in 1997.
- In the year 1990, the Navy League of the United States gave him the Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Literary Achievement.
- The author received his honorary doctorate in humane letters in 1992.
- Clancy was given the title of ‘Supernumerary Yeoman’ and was an honorary Yeoman Warder of His Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London.
