Tom Clancy Essay -- essays research papers

Tom Clancy, born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1947, was the son of a mail carrier and a credit employee. He graduated from Loyola College in Baltimore in 1969. After marrying Wanda Thomas, an insurance agency manager, Clancy became an insurance agent. Later, in 1973, he joined the O.F. Bowen Agency in Owings, Maryland. He became an owner there in 1980. Although he was very interested in the military, his poor eyesight made him ineligible for a military career. However, he kept his interest and researched various aspects of the armed forces and military technology. In the late 1970’s he formed ideas for several novels which were later written in the 1980’s. Clancy wrote in his spare time, while still working to raise a family. In 1984 the Naval Institute Press, a noncommercial publisher, published his first novel, The Hunt for Red October. This book was noticed by President Reagan, who praised the book and helped boost it to bestseller lists. Clancy continued to use plots based on political issues of the world. All of his novels were on bestseller lists. Clear and Present Danger sold more copies than any other novel that was published in the 1980’s. Clancy has been called the creator of the "techno-thriller" genre. He uses extremely detailed descriptions of military technology and weapons to create realism. Occasionally, his descriptions, which were derived from declassified information and interviews, were so accurate that military officials disapproved of...