Bestselling US author Tom Clancy dies at 66

Tom Clancy, whose complex, adrenaline-fueled military novels made him one of the world's best-selling and best-known authors, died today in a hospital in Baltimore. He was 66.

Ivan Held, the president of G.P. Putnam’s Sons, his publisher, did not provide a cause of death.

Clancy’s books were successfully transformed into blockbuster Hollywood films, including Patriot Games, The Hunt for Red October and Clear and Present Danger. His next book, Command Authority, is planned for publication on December 3rd. Seventeen of his novels were No. 1 New York Times best sellers, including his most recent, Threat Vector, which was released in December 2012.

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. After the book’s publication in 1985,

Clancy was praised for his mastery of technical details about Soviet submarines and weaponry. Even high-ranking members of the military took notice of the book’s apparent inside knowledge.

In an interview in 1986, Clancy said, “When I met Navy Secretary John Lehman last year, the first thing he asked me about the book was, ‘Who the hell cleared it?’”

David Shanks, a Penguin executive who worked with Clancy for decades, called him “a consummate author, creating the modern-day thriller, and one of the most visionary storytellers of our time.”

New York Times