Author Focus: Clive Cussler

Clive Cussler is a best-selling American adventure novelist. He was born on July 5th, 1931 in Aurora, Illinois, and grew up in Alhambra, California. Following two years at Pasadena City College he enlisted in the United States Air Force. He served during the Korean War as a flight engineer and aircraft mechanic. After the war he was a copywriter and creative director at ad agencies and was writing commercials for TV and radio. He began writing fiction in 1965 and in 1973 his first novel was published. In addition to his writing career Clive Cussler founded the National Underwater & Marine Agency (NUMA), an organization that is devoted to naval and maritime history.

Clive Cussler and Barbara Knight were married in 1955 and had three children together: Teri, Dirk and Dayna. They were married for almost 50 years, until Barbara passed away in 2003.
Clive Cussler won an award at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival while writing and producing TV and radio commercials for ad agencies.
Clive Cussler's first non-fiction book published, The Sea Hunters, earned him a Doctor of Letters degree. In 1997 the State University of New York Maritime College's Board of Directors accepted the book in place of a Ph. D thesis, and gave him the degree.
Because of Clive Cussler's dedication to marine exploration he was awarded the Naval Heritage Award in 2002 by the U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation.
Clive Cussler began writing in 1965, after his children and gone to bed and while his wife was working.
Clive Cussler's most famous character in his books is Dirk Pitt. The first Dirk Pitt novel was titled The Mediterranean Caper and was published in 1973. He has written more than 20 books in the Dirk Pitt series.
Clive Cussler's son Dirk co-authored several book in the Dirk Pitt series including Black Wind (2004), Treasure of Khan (2006), Arctic Drift (2008), Crescent Dawn (2010), Poseidon's Arrow (2012), and Havana Storm (2014).
Clive Cussler's series The NUMA Files features a character named Kurt Austin, NUMAs team leader. They are adventure novels featuring NUMA, the organization founded by Clive Cussler. There are more than 11 books in this series including Serpent (1999), Blue Gold (2000), Fire Ice (2002), White Death (2003), Lost City (2004), Polar Shift (2005), The Navigator (2007), Medusa (2009), Devil's Gate (2011), The Storm (2012), Zero Hour (2013), and Ghost Ship (2014).
Clive Cussler has written several more book series including The Oregon Files (10 books), Isaac Bell Adventures (8 books), and Fargo Adventures (7 books).
Clive Cussler's non-fiction work includes The Sea Hunters, Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt Revealed, The Sea Hunters II, and Built for Adventure: The Classic Automobiles of Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt.
Clive Cussler is a classic car collector. He has a collection of more than 100 classic cars located in his museum near Golden, Colorado.
Clive Cussler has written children's books including The Adventures of Vin Fiz (2006), and The Adventures of Hotsy Totsy (2010).
Clive Cussler's books Raise the Titanic, and Sahara were made into movies.