Introduction

    With more than 90 million copies of his books in print, Clive Cussler has earned his moniker "The Grand Master of Adventure."

    He has also been called America's Jules Verne. His works are translated into forty different languages, and the exploits of his primary character, Dirk Pitt, are read throughout the world.

    In 1996, Cussler branched out into nonfiction, co-writing with Craig Dirgo The Sea Hunters, a volume about the exploits of his nonprofit foundation National Underwater and Marine Agency. To the amazement of critics and the publishing community alike, the book reached number five on the New York Times hardcover best-sellers list. The introduction of the paperback edition of The Sea Hunters gave Cussler his first number one best-seller. He followed up in 1997 with the return of Dirk Pitt in the hardcover novel Flood Tide, which opened on the New York Times hardcover fiction list at number three, moving to number one the following week, a first for a Dirk Pitt novel.

    What, then, does the future hold for the author who has often said, "I envisioned writing a small paperback series; when I started I thought that if I could make ten thousand dollars a year I would be a happy man."

    In this, the companion book to Cussler's works, we will examine the phenomenal success he has achieved and look at the evolution of the Dirk Pitt novels.

    Delving into Clive Cussler's life, we will see how life imitates art and the close ties that are present between Pitt and Cussler. No work about Clive Cussler would be complete without a section devoted to his famous car collection or a concordance listing the characters in Pitt's adventures.

    Join me now as we dig deep into the world of Clive Cussler.

Craig Dirgo