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Over a period of 30 years, he went on to average nearly one novel a year. Comparing his reviews to those of Charles Dickens, he once said, “The quality of an author’s work is not usually determined until after his death.”īecause Richard Marek was also the editor for my novel, The Sterling Forest, Marek related to me the extraordinary effort that he and his team were forced to go through in editing what he described as a “real mess of a manuscript, riddled with far too many grammatical and stylistic errors.” Over time, through a deep revision process, the errors were resolved, and the rest, as they say, is history. to finish it.”īut Ludlum was unaffected by reviews and critics. Though critics often found his plots unlikely and his prose uninspired, his fast-paced combination of international espionage, conspiracy, and mayhem proved enormously popular.Īs a critic famously wrote of one of his books, “It was a lousy novel, so I stayed up until 3 a.m. The book’s success pushed Ludlum into becoming a full-time writer, following up on his early success with The Osterman Weekend and The Matlock Paper, and developing a trademark style that blended carefully researched fact and fiction into a compelling formula, perfect for the best-seller lists. His second book, The Osterman Weekend, was made into a film, as would The Holcroft Covenant and others. It received many early rejections, but ultimately when The Scarlatti Inheritance was finally released, it was an instant hit as it landed on the shelves.
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“If you don’t do it now, you will regret it for the rest of your life,” she said to him. He’d long been a closet writer, and decided to send out that first full-length effort, titled, “The Scarlatti Inheritance,” and see what happened. In 1971, at age 44, he decided to try to expand and transform that short story into a novel. And that triggered an idea – what if Adolf Hitler’s rise had been inspired by a shadowy group of international financiers? The result was a short story, Then one day, he saw two old black-and-white photographs juxtaposed side-by-side in a magazine: one of Nazi Party members parading in their uniforms, and the other of a wheelbarrow-load of hyper-inflated German Reichsmarks. From that point of view, yes, I guess, I am theatrical." I think it's all suspense and what-happens-next. He once remarked: "I equate suspense and good theater in a very similar way. His theatrical experience may have contributed to his understanding of the energy, escapism and action that the public wanted in a novel. They got married, worked in television and theater together and opened a successful playhouse in northern New Jersey. Returning from war, he attended Wesleyan College in Connecticut, where he focused on theater and met his future wife. During his service, he penned a 100-page manuscript inspired by his time serving in the South Pacific. He entered the Marines after graduation and saw combat in the South Pacific. He then attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, where he earned a B.A. After a seemingly endless period of rowdy behavior, this future superstar settled down at the famed Connecticut prep-school, Cheshire Academy, and began to establish himself as a credible student of the arts as well as exceptional athlete.
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He never found who his birth parents were.Īs an adopted child, Robert Ludlum explored the limits of reasonable behavior and parental tolerance. Ludlum was born in New York City, the adopted son of Margaret Wadsworth and George Hartford Ludlum. Perhaps less known, is that his life-as well as his death may parallel that of his most famous protagonist, Jason Bourne. The number of copies of Ludlum’s books in print is estimated up to 500 million: and his books have been published in 33 languages and 40 countries. From The Scarlatti Inheritance and The Osterman Weekend, to the Bourne Supremacy, movies, digital games, and 41 other novels in-between, Ludlum will always be a hard act for any author to follow. Famed thriller author, Robert Ludlum died on this day, March 12, 2001.