One of America’s most prolific writers is dead.
Tom Clancy, the insurance salesman turned best-selling author of military fiction thrillers died at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland of undisclosed causes. He was 66.
Among Clancy’s millions of fans throughout the world was none other than President Ronald Reagan. In fact, he gave the then-relatively unknown author a big boost in the 1980s which launched him onto the New York Times best-seller list for the first time.
Reagan was so enamored with Clancy’s first novel, 1984’s “The Hunt for Red October,” that he quipped he was losing sleep because he couldn’t put it down, according to The Associated Press. Clancy later was quoted as saying Reagan’s open endorsement launched his early notoriety and placed him permanently in the best-seller category for every book thereafter.
For obvious reasons, after Reagan’s career-making comment, Clancy always referred to him as “my president.”
His list of best-sellers is stunning, including “Patriot Games,” “Clear and Present Danger,” and “The Sum of All Fears,” all of which were made into highly successful movies.
His next book and actually not his last is “Command Authority,” scheduled to be published in December.
Clancy was a lifelong Republican and member of the National Rifle Association.
In a 2001 interview with Bill O’Reilly, Clancy revealed his disdain for the radical left:
“The political left, they deal in symbols rather than reality. The general difference between conservatives and liberals is that liberals like pretty pictures and conservatives like to build bridges that people can drive across. And conservatives are indeed conservative because if the bridge falls down then people die, whereas the liberals figure, we can always build a nice memorial and make people forget it ever happened and was our fault. They’re very good at making people forget it was their fault.”
There will never be another writer quite like Tom Clancy.
