Writer Tom Clancy has died. Tom Clancy, author of several best-selling military thrillers including 'The Hunt for Red October' and 'Patriot Games,' died Tuesday at a Baltimore hospital. Tom Clancy was 66 when he died.
Tom Clancy's writing career spanned three decades during which he became one of the most successful figures in publishing. Tom Clancy's name above a title was a calling card that conferred best-seller status on his espionage and military thrillers and inspired a dizzying array of tie-ins ranging from movies to video games. Clancy's books reveled in the technological details of spy-craft and weaponry, spending paragraphs recounting the various features of a nuclear submarine or a fighter plane.
Tom Clancy's most enduring creation may have been Jack Ryan, the patriotic and morally upright CIA analyst turned politician at the center of more than a dozen novels including 'The Sum of All Fears' and 'The Cardinal of the Kremlin.' The character was notable because his life and ascent mirrored the tectonic changes taking place in American foreign policy throughout Clancy's writing career, as the country moved away from Cold War brinksmanship and turned its gaze to terrorist threats in the Middle East.
The character will appear once again in 'Command Authority,' an upcoming novel scheduled for release on Dec. 3 that finds Ryan returning to the hot spot where it all started an.