Thomas L. Clancy, Jr. had published only a letter and a short article before he submitted his novel The Hunt for Red October to the Naval Institute Press, a publisher devoted to scholarly writings about sailing and the sea. Only recently, the editors of the press had decided to add fiction about the sea to its publications. An insurance salesman with a bachelor's degree in English, Clancy had never served in the Navy. Even so, his book was accepted for publication, and in late 1984, it appeared. He later sold the paperback rights to The Hunt for Red October for $49,500.

Since the publication of his first novel The Hunt for Red October in 1984, Clancy has become an internationally famous writer and something of a cult personality, especially among technophiles. Each novel that he has published since the blockbuster Hunt for Red October has been a...