WRaymond Benson is an American author best known for being the author of the James Bond novels from 1997 to 2003. Benson was born in Midland, Texas and graduated from Permian High School in Odessa in 1973. In primary school Benson took an interest in the piano which would later in his life develop into an interest in composing music, mostly for theatrical productions. Benson also took part in drama at school and became the vice president of his high school's drama department, an interest that he would later pursue by directing stage productions in New York City after attending and receiving a degree in Drama Production—Directing from the University of Texas at Austin. Other hobbies include film history and criticism, writing, and designing computer games.
WWilliam Frank Buckley Jr. was an American public intellectual and conservative author and commentator. In 1955, Buckley founded National Review, a magazine that stimulated the conservative movement in the late-20th century United States. Buckley hosted 1,429 episodes of the public affairs television show Firing Line (1966–1999), the longest-running public affairs show in American television history with a single host, where he became known for his distinctive Mid-Atlantic idiolect and wide vocabulary.
WThomas Leo Clancy Jr. was an American novelist best known for his technically detailed espionage and military-science storylines set during and after the Cold War. Seventeen of his novels were bestsellers, and more than 100 million copies of his books were sold. His name was also used on movie scripts written by ghostwriters, nonfiction books on military subjects occasionally with co-authors, and video games. He was a part-owner of his hometown Major League Baseball team, the Baltimore Orioles of the American League and vice-chairman of their community activities and public affairs committees.
WWill Clarke is an American novelist who is the author of Lord Vishnu's Love Handles: A Spy Novel , The Worthy: A Ghost's Story, and The Neon Palm of Madame Melançon. A native of Shreveport, Louisiana, Clarke originally self-published his first two books via the Internet and independent books stores like Book Soup in Los Angeles, BookPeople in Austin, and Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle. Clarke's books eventually became underground hits in the early part of the 2000s. He later republished the books in hardback with Simon & Schuster and sold the movie rights to Hollywood. Both books have been selected as The New York Times Editors' Choice while Clarke was named the "Hot Pop Prophet" by Rolling Stone magazine in 2006. He is also the author of 'the controversial essay, "How to Kill A Boy That Nobody Likes" which was published in the Free Press Anthology, When I Was a Loser: True Stories of (Barely) Surviving High School.
WClive Eric Cussler was an American adventure novelist and underwater explorer. His thriller novels, many featuring the character Dirk Pitt, have reached The New York Times fiction best-seller list more than 20 times. Cussler was the founder and chairman of the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA), which has discovered more than 60 shipwreck sites and numerous other notable underwater wrecks. He was the sole author or lead author of more than 80 books.
WArnaud Charles Paul Marie Philippe de Borchgrave was a Belgian-American journalist who specialized in international politics. Following a long career with the magazine Newsweek, covering 17 wars in 30 years as a foreign correspondent, he held key editorial and executive positions with The Washington Times and United Press International. Borchgrave was also a founding member of Newsmax Media.
WBarry Mark Eisler is a best-selling American novelist. He is the author of two thriller series, the first featuring anti-hero John Rain, a half-Japanese, half-American former soldier turned freelance assassin, and a second featuring black ops soldier Ben Treven. Eisler also writes about politics and language on his blog Heart of the Matter, and at the blogs CHUD, Firedoglake, The Huffington Post, MichaelMoore.com, The Smirking Chimp, and Truthout.
WDorothy Edith Gilman was an American writer. She is best known for the Mrs. Pollifax series. Begun in a time when women in mystery meant Agatha Christie's Miss Marple and international espionage meant young government men like James Bond and the spies of John le Carré and Graham Greene, Emily Pollifax, her heroine, became a spy in her 60s and is very likely the only spy in literature to belong simultaneously to the CIA and the local garden club.
WFrederick Graham, who writes under the name Cork Graham, is an American author of adventure memoir and political thriller fiction novels. He is a former combat photographer, who was imprisoned in Vietnam for illegally entering the country while supposedly looking for treasure buried by Captain Kidd.
WEverette Howard Hunt Jr. was an American intelligence officer and author. From 1949 to 1970, Hunt served as an officer in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), particularly in the United States involvement in regime change in Latin America. Along with G. Gordon Liddy, Frank Sturgis, and others, Hunt was one of the Nixon administration "plumbers", a team of operatives charged with identifying government sources of national security information "leaks" to outside parties. Hunt and Liddy plotted the Watergate burglaries and other clandestine operations for the Nixon administration. In the ensuing Watergate scandal, Hunt was convicted of burglary, conspiracy, and wiretapping, eventually serving 33 months in prison. After release, Hunt lived in Mexico and then Florida until his death.
WDavid Reynolds Ignatius is an American journalist and novelist. He is an associate editor and columnist for The Washington Post. He has written eleven novels, including Body of Lies, which director Ridley Scott adapted into a film. He is a former adjunct lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and currently Senior Fellow to the Future of Diplomacy Program. He has received numerous honors, including the Legion of Honor from the French Republic, the Urbino World Press Award from the Italian Republic, and a lifetime achievement award from the International Committee for Foreign Journalism.
WJoseph Kanon is an American author, best known for thriller and spy novels set in the period immediately after World War II.
WRobert Ludlum was an American author of 27 thriller novels, best known as the creator of Jason Bourne from the original The Bourne Trilogy series. The number of copies of his books in print is estimated between 300 million and 500 million. They have been published in 33 languages and 40 countries. Ludlum also published books under the pseudonyms Jonathan Ryder and Michael Shepherd.
WJohn Phillips Marquand was an American writer. Originally best known for his Mr. Moto spy stories, he achieved popular success and critical respect for his satirical novels, winning a Pulitzer Prize for The Late George Apley in 1938. One of his abiding themes was the confining nature of life in America's upper class and among those who aspired to join it. Marquand treated those whose lives were bound by these unwritten codes with a characteristic mix of respect and satire.
WFrancis Van Wyck Mason was an American historian and novelist. He had a long and prolific career as a writer spanning 50 years and including 78 published novels, many of which were best sellers and well received.
WHayford Peirce was an American writer of science fiction, mysteries, and spy thrillers. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and received his BA from Harvard College. He wrote numerous short stories for the science-fiction magazines Analog, Galaxy, and Omni, as well as mystery shorts for Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. Most of his stories are light-hearted and satiric in tone, with elements of black humor and occasional surprising grimness.
WCharles Patrick Pfarrer III is an American writer, film producer, and former United States Navy SEAL. As an author, he has penned published screenplays, novels, comic book, and non-fiction works. Regardless of medium, his work usually deal with themes pertaining to the military, and he has worked on blockbuster films like Navy SEALs, Darkman, and Hard Target.
WHelen Holly Roth-Franta was an American crime writer. She authored novels and short stories in genres of spy fiction and detective fiction. She also published works under the pseudonyms P.J. Merrill and K.G. Ballard. She published twelve novels in her lifetime and many short stories, one of which was nominated for an Edgar Award.
WDaniel Silva is an American journalist and author of thriller and espionage novels.
WOlen Steinhauer is an American writer of spy fiction novels, including The Tourist, the Milo Weaver series, and the Yalta Boulevard Sequence. Steinhauer also created the TV series Berlin Station, focused on a fictional Central Intelligence Agency branch operating in Berlin, which began airing in 2016.
WRon Terpening is an American writer, professor of Italian, and editor. Though he started his writing career as an author of young-adult fiction, where the father/son conflict is a major theme, he is best known for his later novels of suspense, most of which are set, at least in part, in Italy, reflecting his academic background as a scholar of Italian culture. His thriller League of Shadows, for example, deals with the Fascist Era in Italy and its aftermath in the contemporary world. A later international thriller, Nine Days in October, came out of the author's course research on the forces of order and disorder in contemporary Italy and follows a band of criminals and ex-terrorists as they attempt to carry out an assassination plot. All of his novels, including Storm Track and Tropic of Fear, the latter set in Paraguay, are noted for their strong sense of place. In most of his novels, his protagonist is usually a common man placed in a situation where powerful forces are arrayed against him.
WBradley George Thor Jr. is an American thriller novelist. He is the author of The Lions of Lucerne, The First Commandment, The Last Patriot, and other novels. His latest novel in the Harvath series, Near Dark, was released in July 2020. Thor's novels have been published in countries around the world. He also contributed a short story entitled "The Athens Solution" to the James Patterson-edited anthology, Thriller. Thor also makes frequent appearances on Fox News and The Blaze.
WHerbert Osborn Yardley was an American cryptologist. He founded and led the cryptographic organization the Black Chamber. Under Yardley, the cryptanalysts of The American Black Chamber broke Japanese diplomatic codes and were able to furnish American negotiators with significant information during the Washington Naval Conference of 1921-1922. Recipient of the Distinguished Service Medal. He wrote The American Black Chamber (1931) about his experiences there. He later helped the Nationalists in China (1938–1940) to break Japanese codes. Following his work in China, Yardley worked briefly for the Canadian government, helping it set up a cryptological section of the National Research Council of Canada from June to December 1941. Yardley was reportedly let go due to pressure either from the Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson or from the British.