The first person to consider on this page will be the author himself, Clive Cussler.

Clive Cussler
· 19 consecutive New York Times fiction best sellers.
· sold more than 125 million books.
· credited with finding numerous missing ships and planes including the CSS Hunley, the first submarine ever to sink a ship in battle.
· holds a Doctor of Letters from the State University of New York for his first non-fiction work.
· is a car collector with more than 85 examples of classic custom coachwork in his garage outside Denver.

Clive Cussler, is internationally acknowledged as the Grand Master of the American action/adventure novel. Cussler's books are published in more than 40 languages in more than 100 countries with a readership of more than 125 million avid fans.

Clive Cussler is an internationally recognized authority on shipwrecks and the founder of the National Underwater & Marine Agency (NUMA(®)), a 501C3 non-profit organization that dedicates itself to preserving maritime and naval history. Cussler and his crew of marine experts and NUMA(®) volunteers have discovered more than 60 historically significant underwater wreck sites. After verifying their finds, they turn the rights to the artifacts over to non-profits, universities or government entities throughout the country and the world.

In September 1998, NUMA(®) launched its own web site for those wishing more information about maritime history or wishing to make donations to NUMA(®), www.numa.net. In September 1999, Dr. Cussler authorized the formation of NUMA(®) Australia, a non-profit organization. NUMA(®) South Africa exists as a for profit operation.

Cussler began writing novels in 1965 and published his first work featuring his continuing series hero, Dirk Pitt(®), in 1973.

His first non-fiction work, The Sea Hunters, was released in 1996. The Board of Governors of the Maritime College, State University of New York considered The Sea Hunters in lieu of a Ph.D. thesis and awarded Cussler a Doctor of Letters degree in May 1997. It was the first time since the College was founded in 1874 that such a degree was bestowed.

Cussler is Chairman of NUMA(®) and a fellow in both the Explorers Club of New York and the Royal Geographic Society in London. He has been honored with the Lowell Thomas Award for outstanding underwater exploration.

Growing up in Alhambra, CA, Cussler attended Pasadena City College for two years, then enlisted in the Air Force during the Korean War and served as an aircraft mechanic and flight engineer in the Military Air Transport Service.

Upon discharge, he became a copywriter and later creative director of two of the nation's leading ad agencies. He wrote and produced radio and television commercials in Hollywood that won numerous international awards including an award at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.

Cussler recently optioned all 14 of his novels featuring Dirk Pitt(®) to Crusader Entertainment with script and casting approval, Variety's "Write Stuff" reported. SAHARA is now in development with Paramount. Cussler's non-fiction bestseller The Sea Hunters, about shipwrecks, is being developed by Eco-Nova Productions into a 19-episode television series, to air on the National Geographic channel in the U.S., with Cussler himself introducing each episode.

A noted collector of classic automobiles, Cussler owns more than 85 of the finest examples of classic 30s and 40s coachwork and 50s convertibles to be found anywhere. They are garaged near Golden, CO. Cussler's wife, Barbara Knight, recently passed away. They have three children and two grandchildren. Cussler divides his time between the mountains of Colorado and the deserts of Arizona.

For more information about Clive Cussler, fans can turn to www.numa.net, or his publisher www.penguinputnam.com

DIRK PITT(®) ADVENTURES BY CLIVE CUSSLER

· Black Wind (with Dirk Cussler)
· Trojan Odyssey
· Valhalla Rising
· Atlantis Found
· Flood Tide
· Shock Wave
· Inca Gold
· Sahara
· Dragon
· Treasure
· Cyclops
· Deep Six
· Pacific Vortex!
· Night Probe!
· Vixen O3
· Raise the Titanic!
· Iceberg
· Mediterranean Caper
FICTION BY CLIVE CUSSLER WITH PAUL KEMPRECOS
· Lost City
· White Death
· Fire Ice
· Blue Gold
· Serpent
NONFICTION BY CLIVE CUSSLER AND CRAIG DIRGO
· The Sea Hunters II
· Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt Revealed
· The Sea Hunters
FICTION BY CLIVE CUSSLER AND CRAIG DIRGO
· Sacred Stone
· Golden Buddha

Interview With Clive Cussler

From June 2001

Clive Cussler, famous for his adventure novels featuring Dirk Pitt, spoke to us from his Arizona home about sequels, car collections and shipwrecks.

A seafaring adventurer, Cussler has been at the forefront of numerous maritime discoveries, some of which he wrote about in his nonfiction book, "The Sea Hunters: True Adventures with Famous Shipwrecks" (co-written with Craig Dirgo). Interestingly, Cussler and his wife chose a landlocked existence, spending most of their time in Arizona, with another residence in Colorado. However, he said he spends "a couple of months out of the year looking for shipwrecks."

Just as Alfred Hitchcock made cameo appearances in his films, Cussler "appears" in his novels. He once introduced Dirk Pitt, his "hero," to an antique car collector named "Clive Cussler." That character still appears occasionally in the Pitt novels and the author said he received over 300 positive fan letters the first time his fictional self appeared in print.

Cussler was "in advertising" until 1975, when his breakthrough Dirk Pitt novel, "Raise the Titanic" was published. Pitt's most recent outing was in "Atlantis Found." There is also a spin-off series chronicling adventures from "The NUMA Files." For audiophiles new to Cussler's work, NUMA stands for the National Underwater and Marine Agency, which is much like the CIA of the marine world. In another example of how his life mirrors his art, Cussler helped to found a real-life NUMA, which is a not-for-profit agency that locates shipwrecks.

Rochelle O'Gorman: I take it that Dirk Pitt is your alter ego.

Clive Cussler: Oh, I suppose, in a sense. I always joke that when Pitt and I started out together we were both 36. Now he's knocking a little over 40 and I'm 68, so it ain't fair. I gave him my height, 6'3", and green eyes, although his are much greener than mine. We had the same weight at the time, 185. He's still that and I've gone up to 200. And he certainly scores better with the girls than I ever did.

O'Gorman: Well, haven't you been married for a long time?

Cussler: Yeah, it's going on 45 years.

O'Gorman: In some ways I find that Pitt stops just shy of being a superhero.

Cussler: No, he's human. He gets beat up and shot up, but he does in the villain at the end. He's the kind of a guy that can take an elegant lady to a nice gourmet restaurant and order the right wine and then the next day he's down at the saloon slopping beer with the boys and watching football. So he's not a James Bond, he's more of an all-American type, a hero.

O'Gorman: Why did you give him a sidekick with Al Giordino?

Cussler: I wanted to be different. All the rest of them are single heroes and I thought this way Pitt and Giordino could play off each other. And Giordino is the only one in the books who's taken from a real character, an old Air Force buddy of mine whose name is Al Giordino. He's still around. He's a retired stone mason in Florida.

O'Gorman: Does this guy chew nails for breakfast?

Cussler: No, he was just fun. I described him in the book as 5'4," broad shoulders, a beefy little Italian with a great sardonic wit.

O'Gorman: Did you grow up reading graphic novels about superheroes? Your writing is obviously more fleshed out than a graphic novel, but it calls to mind that genre.

Cussler: Oh, sure. I grew up with all the comic books like Dr. Savage, Superman, Batman, all of them. And then there were the movies, the older movies, the black and whites. There were more big heroes then, particularly in westerns. And then there were the more down to earth detective types. They were more human, I think, in those days than they are today.

O'Gorman: What do you mean?

Cussler: Well, you take all the young actors today under the age of 30 and they all look like they came out of a cookie cutter. There's nothing really distinguished about any of them. Where's the Glenn Fords, the Jimmy Stewarts, the Gary Coopers, the John Waynes, the Humphrey Bogarts, the Jimmy Cagneys? None of them have a distinctive voice. Other than the Jack Nicholson and one or two others, you don't have the super heroes around like you used to.

O'Gorman: You've written 15 Dirk Pitt novels and a couple of others. Don't you run out of ideas?

Cussler: It's getting harder, believe me. With the last book I'm really struggling because I use about six plots in every book. It's not like one single plot, so the well's starting to run dry.

If you've ever followed any author - you've had favorites, I'm sure - you always know when they reach their peak. There's only so much in you. James A. Michener, for example. I remember when I read "Centennial," I had to go back and read "Hawaii" and "The Source" and I knew he was starting to lose it. And Ian Fleming. I remember when I read "The Man with a Golden Gun" and I knew he'd lost it. So, I would say "Atlantis Found" is probably Cussler's peak. From now on it's downhill.

O'Gorman: You never know. You may start a new series and find all new energy.

Cussler: Well, I'm working on two (the Pitt books and its spin-off, the NUMA Files series). And then they want me to come up with another one that is a spin-off on a few chapters from a book where I had these mercenaries with this old derelict ship. It was loaded with missiles and it could do 50 knots and had big engines. It was run like a corporation; the captain was the chairman of the board. They want to take this concept of this ship and have it going around the world, getting into mischief. They also condense some of the books for juvenile readers.

O'Gorman: You have an empire!

Cussler: And they still want me to do another sequel to my shipwreck book, "The Sea Hunters: True Adventures with Famous Shipwrecks."

O'Gorman: You write the NUMA Files books with a partner. Does that mean you come up with the parameters of the story and then someone else fills it in?

Cussler: Yeah, Paul Kemprecos, in this case. I picked him because he did a neat little detective series -- a Greek detective in Cape Cod ("Bluefin Blues" and "Feeding Frenzy"). Everything was based in and around water; the guy was a diver. I had to have somebody help write it; I couldn't do two books at the same time. So I picked Paul, and he's done a very competent job.

O'Gorman: How do you feel about having someone else fleshing out your ideas?

Cussler: Oh, it doesn't bother me. He's actually making up most of his own words. I edit it.

O'Gorman: Are you tired of Dirk Pitt? Would you like to retire him?

Cussler: I think he's tired, I'm not. He's getting a little long in the tooth. But, you know, look at James Bond. He's still going; he's never aged. I've talked about maybe having a long lost son show up, but everybody from the editors to the agent nix that. And if I died tomorrow they'd get somebody to keep the Pitt series going, I'm sure.

O'Gorman: You think so?

Cussler: Oh, it's too profitable for the publisher. I can't believe they'd just drop it.

O'Gorman: How do you feel about that?

Cussler: Oh, I don't mind. The kids would get the money. Not that it would be successful, because John E. Gardner kept the James Bond series going and it never really sold well.

O'Gorman: Is there really a NUMA?

Cussler:Yes, Virginia, there really is. I was looking for the John Paul Jones ship in 1978, which I have yet to find, by the way. It's in the North Sea. There was an attorney who was one of the volunteers on board. He suggested that since I was spending money on this I really should incorporate as a not-for-profit foundation, since it was more or less a donation because we were trying to preserve maritime history. That's when we formed NUMA.

O'Gorman: When was that?

Cussler: Oh, 1979. All the trustees thought it would be great fun to call it after the one out of the book, NUMA. I disagreed, but they outvoted me.

O'Gorman: Your life and your art seem to blur a lot. Does that get a little weird?

Cussler: Oh, no, because I'm pretty common.

O'Gorman: You're telling me you're normal enough so that it doesn't bother you?

Yeah, pretty much. I wouldn't say my wife and I are reclusive, but we don't do much. We're busy, but we're not out in the social circles. Even when I go on a shipwreck and we make a big discovery, you rarely hear about it because unlike Bob Ballard (who discovered the Titanic and the German battleship Bismarck), I don't stand up in front of six TV cameras.
Cussler:

O'Gorman: He's probably looking for more funding than you are, though.

Cussler: Well that's true. Of course, I gave up on the funding. I just fund it out of my book royalties.

O'Gorman: Your other hobby is collecting cars. How many do you have?

Cussler: Oh, I guess pushing 90.

O'Gorman: Where does one put 90 cars?

Cussler: In a warehouse. I've got a warehouse outside of Denver where I keep the collection. There's two fellows in front of it who have a restoration shop, so I give it to them rent free and then they maintain the collection for me. Then if I want a car restored they'll do mine as well as others.

O'Gorman: Do you get much use out of the cars?

Cussler: Not any more. I used to live there and was down to the shop about three or four times a week, but now I only see them about three or four times a year. Right now it's an investment. Rather than doing the stock market, I bought old cars. It's more fun and I know more about it. I don't know zip about the stock market.

O'Gorman: Tell me about the women in your books, because they are more than just decoration.

Cussler: That's right, no bimbos. They're all intelligent and nice looking. Women always ask me how I know so much about fashion - because I always describe what they wear. I just take it out of Vogue and the rest of the fashion magazines that my wife subscribes to.

O'Gorman: Do you have daughters?

Cussler: Yes, I have two daughters (and one son).

O'Gorman: When I heard "Atlantis Found" I assumed you have daughters, because the women are there for more than just sex.

Cussler: Well, I don't have any sex in my books. And no four-letter words, because when I started writing my kids were quite young. I thought, "Someday they're going to read these books." As a result I get many letters from schoolteachers and mothers who couldn't get their children or students to read. They start them, generally, with "Raise the Titanic" and then they say, "They've read all your books and now they're reading everything in sight."

I didn't feel it was necessary. The sex slows the action down. They never learned that in the movies.

O'Gorman: Speaking of movies, "Raise the Titanic" was made into one in 1980. Has there ever been talk about a Dirk Pitt movie?

Cussler: All the time, but I took the books off the market because they made such a mess of it ("Raise the Titanic"). I don't care that they messed up the book, but the direction was terrible, the screenwriting was abominable, even the editing was awful. So I just never sold to Hollywood again.

My agent and I laugh because all the actors from (Sylvester) Stallone to (Bruce) Willis to (Richard) Chamberlain to Wesley Snipes to Christopher Reeves, before he fell off the horse, they all want to play Dirk Pitt. In fact, Matthew McConaughey has been to the house three times. But I'm still leery. Let's say that they produce and make another mediocre nothing, a box office bomb. Well, I'm dead; they'll never sell to the movies again. So it's a risk. Look at Wilbur Smith, a great South African writer who had three terrible movies in a row made from his books and it killed him in the American market. ("Gold," "The Kingfish Caper" and "Shout at the Devil" are three of Smith's novels that have been adapted for film.) He's unknown over here now. He used to hit the bestseller list all the time, and he's still a great writer. We had to climb back after "Raise the Titanic."

O'Gorman: What about audiobooks? Do you ever listen to them?

Cussler: No, because I listen to classical stuff and chamber music when I'm out on the road. I like to relax when I'm driving. My wife took one with us when we drove from Arizona to Colorado. We listened to it for about half an hour and then finally I said, "That's it, I know how it all comes out. I know the ending. The butler did it."

O'Gorman: Okay then, what do you read?

Cussler: Cute story. Years ago I had lunch with James Michener when he was writing "Centennial." I said, "Have you read any good book lately, Jim?" He laughed and he said, "I don't read." He meant that when you're working on a book you're researching. About the only books I have time to read are the review copies or manuscripts of a first-time author. If he's done a competent job I'll give him a quote or an endorsement.

O'Gorman: What are you working on next?

Cussler: Oh, I'm working on another one with Pitt. I've got one more to do under the contract.

O'Gorman: Do you have a title?

Cussler: Not yet. In fact, on the title page in the word processor it just says "new book."

O'Gorman: Is Clive Cussler your real name?

Cussler: Yes.

O'Gorman: I assumed it was a pen name.

Cussler: Everybody thinks that. When I was born my mother liked the name because she liked a British actor whose name was Clive Brook, and my dad's name was Cussler. He came from Germany. So, it's real. And my son's name is Dirk. He was six months old when I started writing, so I just used his name for fun.

Inherit the word
Dirk Cussler takes over his dad's literary series
Scott Craven
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 27, 2004 12:00 AM

Dirk Cussler remembers being curled up in bed and hearing the tap-tap-tapping of his father's typewriter, the rhythmic clicks waking him up and lulling him back to sleep.

A few feet away, hunched over a small desk, Clive Cussler concocted plots that would change the course of the Cusslers' lives. Four-year-old Dirk knew nothing of the fictional hero (who shared the youngster's first name) who would become as much a part of the family as his mother and two sisters.

Nor could he see his part in all of it, a role he wouldn't assume for another 40 years when the story took twists and turns that not even his father expected.

And though the ending has yet to be written, it will no doubt be every bit as satisfying as the ending of any Dirk Pitt novel, where the good guy overcomes all and the only question left is where the next adventure will lead.

On Tuesday, Clive Cussler fans will descend upon bookstores to nab copies of Black Wind, the 73-year-old Paradise Valley author's latest sea-based thriller.

Cussler's name will emblazon the cover. In small print below it will be the name of Clive's only son. The release marks the first step in what will be a handoff of the popular franchise from one generation to the next.

It was the one family heirloom that 43-year-old Dirk never thought he'd inherit.

Dirk Cussler had never been much of a writer. He wrote the occasional letter as well as required essays in high school and college (he graduated from Arizona State before obtaining his MBA from the University of California-Berkeley). When a teacher praised his stories in a high school creative writing class, he didn't give it a second thought.

But Dirk was a reader, primarily of non-fiction. Of course he read his father's Dirk Pitt adventures, at first out of obligation. But the 12-year-old enjoyed his father's first novel The Mediterranean Caper (Berkley Publishing Group, 2004, $7.99 paperback) when the book was published in 1973, eight years after it had been written.

Dirk continued to read the Pitt series, first as one of its few fans (his dad's first two books sold barely into the thousands) and then as one of the many (there are now an estimated 90 million Cussler readers worldwide, a number steadily growing since the author's breakout hit Raise the Titanic! (Berkley Publishing Group, 2004, $7.99 paperback) in 1975. At some point - even Dirk isn't sure when this happened - he got to know Pitt as well as his father did.That's as far as his interest went. He wanted to work with numbers and became an accountant.

"I was very analytical," Dirk said. "Math appealed to me more than anything else."

That changed in 2001 when Dirk was laid off by Motorola. He decided it was time to do something different and embarked on writing a book - non-fiction, of course. He would abandon the project when his dad made him a better offer.

At the same time, Clive was struggling with his own career. As much as he loved to write, the then-70-year-old thought his Pitt stories were running on empty. Though sales proved that Cussler's fans still loved the series, Clive struggled with keeping it fresh. Dirk Pitt began to age, and thus his character evolved. He had a family, most notably Dirk Pitt Jr. He began to suffer the aches and pains that came with age.

Clive's biggest challenge was coming up with yet another diabolical plan his hero could thwart.

"I was running out of stuff," he said. "Not that writing has ever been a labor of love, but I enjoyed it. Now it was beginning to feel like a job."

The former adman knew the importance of the Dirk Pitt franchise. While Clive enjoyed collaborating with authors on a handful of series, he jealously guarded Pitt.

Peter Lampack, Clive's agent for more than 30 years, sensed the concern.

"How he would step back (from the Pitt franchise) was often a topic of discussion," Lampack said. "He wanted to do other things with the life that remained in front of him."

But as in a Dirk Pitt novel, our hero couldn't just retire, abandoning the next mission for R and R on a pristine tropical beach.

And like a Dirk Pitt novel, the answer occurred to him in the nick of time.

To Dirk, the idea came out of nowhere. Over lunch about a year and a half ago, his dad simply said, "Why don't you take a shot at Dirk Pitt?"

Father and son sat across from one another in Clive's studio, a long, narrow room crammed with books, looking like a Hollywood set. Together, they hashed out a plot.

Dirk planted the seeds (World War II Japanese sub carrying deadly cargo) and over the next few hours the framework took shape, just like the days gone by when the two worked to restore old cars.

When the basic outline was finished, Dirk began work on the prologue. He toiled in a public library, writing the draft in longhand.

He feared his father would be too easy on him.

Clive had his own fears. He was ready to pass the Pitt torch, but was his son ready to take it?

After a few weeks of research and writing, Dirk, a first-time novelist with no formal training, handed his father the completed prologue.

Lampack saw no reason to be optimistic.

Clive, however, had no expectations. So he wasn't all that surprised when, paging through Dirk's manuscript, he felt like he was reading an early Clive Cussler.

"As soon as I put it down, I knew this was going to work," Clive said.

Clive's editor, Neil Nyren, was hesitant about the collaboration. The question wasn't, "Will they accept another author?" he said. The question was, "Would they accept a subpar story?"

Those concerns were assuaged when Nyren and Clive talked shortly after Dirk turned in the prologue.

"My thought was that if Clive was satisfied, I would be satisfied," Nyren said. "He is as much a taskmaster as anyone I know. If he said this was going to be good, I could trust him."

Dirk devoted himself to the book. He turned in 100 pages every two or three months, rewriting at his father's suggestions. Dirk even surprised himself at how well he knew Pitt. Though this would be the first Cussler novel to focus on the son, Pitt Jr., thus marking a passing of the torch on two levels.

Those in the publishing industry who have read the book say it's a seamless transition. They can't tell Dirk's writing from Clive's, nor can they explain it.

"Maybe it's because Dirk Pitt was such an integrated part of his (Dirk's) environment," Lampack said. "Honestly, it's a mystery."

Dirk is just as mystified. The words, he said, just seemed to be there.

He realizes how fortunate he is to be Clive Cussler's son, as well as how unfortunate he is (from a writing viewpoint) to be Clive Cussler's son.

"I feel like I've won the lottery," Dirk said. "I know there are a lot of struggling writers out there with a lot more talent than I have. But it's a double-edged sword. There's a pressure to satisfy this big fan base that doesn't want Clive Cussler to disappear."

But Clive will disappear, at least from the Dirk Pitt franchise. The plans are to collaborate on at least one more book (with each name being of equal size on the cover) and then have Dirk take it over.

That will give Clive time to finish other projects dear to his heart, like a coffee-table book on the dozens of collectible cars he owns and a children's book inspired by Ian Fleming's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Barbara Peters, owner of the Poisoned Pen bookstore in Scottsdale,has ordered more than 700 copies of Black Wind, one of the largest orders of the year. She's already received more than 300 pre-orders, many from members of an online forum dedicated to Cussler.

"They know of Dirk's involvement and are very excited to read the book," Peters said. "I expect sales to be higher than Clive's last book, partly because of the curiosity factor, but mostly because it reads just like a Cussler. I can't tell the difference."

Next week, the Cusslers embark on a nationwide book tour where fans will meet the future of the Pitt franchise. Father and son will sign countless copies, the first time they've spent so much time together since Dirk moved out of the family home more than two decades ago.

When they return, they'll get started on the next book.

"I'm sure Dirk Sr. will be back, and maybe have a much bigger part," Dirk said. "But I'm really not sure at this point how it will turn out."

While I've spent weeks typing and compiling information on the Characters in the books, I have found a wonderful site with the information already there, so rather than "reinvent the wheel", I refer you to "The World of Dirk Pitt" :

Clink on this link:

2/2/04 Carole Bartholomeaux Resigns:

Clive's Publicist: Carole Bartholomeaux After more than 18 years as the team responsible for all of the national and international public relations and marketing for Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt ® adventures, BARTHOLOMEAUX/Public Relations announced today that they have resigned the account with the acclaimed author.
“We enjoyed a wonderful relationship these many years. Working with Clive Cussler was extremely gratifying, challenging and exhilarating,” Bartholomeaux explained. “Because Clive’s children wish to be more involved in the day to day running of what has become a multi million dollar business operation, it is simply time for B/PR to step aside.

“The TROJAN ODYSSEY Book Tour in November and December, 2003 that took Clive and me to 14 cities in 16 days was grueling for both of us but the thousands of fans who lined up to meet their hero made it all worthwhile. After much consideration, the B/PR Team made the decision to leave their famous client at a high point,” Bartholomeaux concluded.

Carole V. Bartholomeaux
BARTHOLOMEAUX/Public Relations, Lobbying, Advertising, Marketing, Corporate Consulting and more.
Creating marvelous images for our wonderful clients!
Bartholomeaux / Public Relations, Inc. * 13835 N. Tatum Blvd. #9-421
Phoenix, Arizona 85032-5582
Phone: 602 604-0321 * Fax: 602 604-0319
602 404-8018 www.b-pr.com

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