Clancy, Tom (1947-2013), was a popular American author of espionage novels. Much of his fiction is distinguished by its blend of rousing action and detailed descriptions of military weapons, technology, and political decision-making. Clancy’s plots typically deal with international terrorism and the threat of world war. Several of his stories feature Jack Ryan, a national security adviser and United States Marine Corps veteran who teaches at the United States Naval Academy, works with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and eventually becomes president of the United States.
Clancy became a best-selling author with his first published novel, The Hunt for Red October (1984). The story is an exciting account of a race between U.S. and Soviet forces to reach a Soviet submarine captain who the United States believes wants to defect with Soviet military secrets. Clancy’s second novel, Red Storm Rising (1986), describes a military conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. A confrontation between the United States and Russia also forms the plot of Clancy’s fourth novel, The Cardinal of the Kremlin (1988). Jack Ryan helps avert a nuclear war in The Sum of All Fears (1991). Other Jack Ryan stories include Patriot Games (1987), Clear and Present Danger (1989), Without Remorse (1993), Debt of Honor (1994), Executive Orders (1996), Rainbow Six (1998), The Bear and the Dragon (2000), Red Rabbit (2002), Threat Vector (written with Mark Greaney, 2012), and Command Authority (written with Mark Greaney, 2013). Ryan’s son, Jack Ryan, Jr., is featured in The Teeth of the Tiger (2003) and Dead or Alive (2010). Several other authors continued the “Jack Ryan” series after Clancy’s death. A series of popular motion pictures, as well as the television series Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, are based on the novels.
Clancy collaborated with other writers on several novels. American agents try to stop the outbreak of civil war in Spain in Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Balance of Power (1998), one of a series about an international intelligence agency created by Clancy and written by Steve Pieczenik and Jeff Rovin. Clancy and Pieczenik created the Tom Clancy’s Net Force series, written by Steve Perry. Clancy and Pieczenik wrote a series of young adult action novels based on the series, called Net Force Explorers.
Thomas Leo Clancy, Jr., was born on April 12, 1947, in Baltimore and graduated from Loyola College in that city in 1969. He worked as an insurance agent and executive before becoming a full-time writer. Clancy co-wrote a series of nonfiction books dealing with U.S. military operations. They include Into the Storm (1997), with Fred Franks, Jr.; Every Man a Tiger (1999), with Chuck Horner; Shadow Warriors (2002), with Carl Stiner; and Battle Ready (2004), with Tony Zinni. Clancy died on Oct. 1, 2013.
