Author Clive Cussler dies at 88

Clive Cussler’s books did not always translate into successful films. Indeed, during shooting of one of cinema’s most famous flops, Raise the Titanic, Sir Lew Grade remarked it would have been “cheaper to lower the Atlantic”.

But when his words were allowed to breathe and his plots wended their way into readers’ imaginations they made Clive Cussler, who has died aged 88, one of the most successful authors of the 20th Century.

The creator and co-writer of more than 80 books, including Sahara – another Hollywood fiasco – and a series featuring his hero Dirk Pitt, Cussler sold more than 100 million books globally, was published in more than 40 languages, and topped the New York Times bestseller list 17 times in a row.

Born in Aurora, Illinois, in 1931, he served in the US Air Force during the Korean War then moved into copywriting and advertising, becoming an award-winning producer of radio and TV commercials.

When he began writing novels The Mediterranean Caper, his first with Dirk Pitt – a marine engineer and government agent – was published in 1973 to international acclaim.

Blessed with a vivid imagination, Cussler devised bold storylines such as the kidnap, not assassination, of Abraham Lincoln, and produced beautifully crafted Boy’s Own stuff, which the public lapped up.

In the early 2000s, he agreed to work with co-authors at the request of his US publisher Simon and Schuster, in order to publish more frequently.

Some critics questioned this, but Cussler said he didn’t care and explained in typically pithy style that he had never considered himself the new Dickens.

He said: “I entertain my readers. I get up in the morning and I start typing – and I want it to be easy to read. I’m not writing exotic literature. I like snappy dialogue and short descriptions and lots of action.”

An enthusiastic underwater explorer, he also helped discover more than 60 shipwrecks with his organisation the National Underwater and Marine Agency – named after the fictional agency that employs Pitt.

Its finds included the RMS Carpathia – among the first ships to come to the aid of Titanic survivors – and the HL Hunley, the first submarine to sink an enemy vessel, from the American Civil War era.

Clive Cussler was famed for his elaborate plots