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Fast Facts
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Crusader Entertainment, a rising production company, has acquired the
much-sought-after rights to the best-selling action-adventure books of Clive Cussler,
including Sahara, Atlantis Found, Night Probe, Inca Gold
and Flood Tide.
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The Board of Governors of the Maritime College, State University of New York
considered Cussler's 1996 nonfiction work, The Sea Hunters, in lieu of a Ph.D.
thesis and awarded Cussler a Doctor of Letters degree in May 1997.
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Cussler worked for many years in advertising and was one of the copywriters
responsible for the Ajax White Knight commercial slogan, "It's stronger than
dirt.
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Cussler founded the nonprofit National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) in
1979. Since that time his marine crew and NUMA volunteers have discovered more than 60
historically significant underwater wreck sites. The rights to the discovered artifacts
are turned over to non-profits, universities or government entities throughout the
country.
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After 15 years of searching,
Cussler and his crew discovered the Hunley --- a Confederate submarine that
disappeared on February 14, 1865 --- in May, 1995. The ship possessed such historical
significance that P.T. Barnum once offered $100,000 to anyone able to locate the submarine
and transport it to back to his museum in New York.
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Bio
Clive Cussler grew up in Alhambra, California. He attended Pasadena City
College for two years, then enlisted in the Air Force during the Korean War and served as
an aircraft mechanic and flight engineer in the Military Air Transport Service. Upon
discharge he became a copywriter and later creative director at two of the nation's
leading ad agencies. He wrote and produced radio and television commercials in Hollywood
that won numerous international honors including an award at the prestigious Cannes Film
Festival.Cussler began writing novels in 1965 and published his first work featuring
his continuous series hero, Dirk Pitt, in 1973. His first non-fiction, The Sea Hunters,
was released in 1996. The Board of Governors of the Maritime College, State University of
New York, considered The Sea Hunters in lieu of a Ph.D. thesis and awarded Cussler
a Doctor of Letters degree in May, 1997. It was the first time since the College was
founded in 1874 that such a degree was bestowed.
Cussler is an internationally recognized authority on shipwrecks and the founder of the
National Underwater and Marine Agency, (NUMA) a 501C3 non-profit organization (named after
the fictional Federal agency in his novels) that dedicates itself to preserving American
maritime and naval history. He and his crew of marine experts and NUMA volunteers have
discovered more than 60 historically significant underwater wreck sites including the
first submarine to sink a ship in battle, the Confederacy's Hunley, and its victim,
the Union's Housatonic; the U-20, the U-boat that sank the Lusitania;
the Cumberland, which was sunk by the famous ironclad, Merrimack; the
renowned Confederate raider Florida; the Navy airship, Akron, the Republic
of Texas Navy warship, Zavala, found under a parking lot in Galveston, and the Carpathia,
which sank almost six years to-the-day after plucking Titanic's survivors from the
sea.
In September, 1998, NUMA - which turns over all artifacts to state and Federal
authorities, or donates them to museums and universities - launched its own web site for
those wishing more information about maritime history or wishing to make donations to the
organization. (www.numa.net).
In addition to being the Chairman of NUMA, Cussler is also a fellow in both the
Explorers Club of New York and the Royal Geographic Society in London. He has been honored
with the Lowell Thomas Award for outstanding underwater exploration.
Cussler's books have been published in more than 40 languages in more than 100
countries and have a readership of more than 90 million avid fans. His past international
bestsellers include Pacific Vortex, Mediterranean Caper, Iceberg, Raise the Titanic,
Vixen 03, Night Probe, Deep Six, Cyclops, Treasure, Dragon, Sahara, Inca Gold, Shock Wave,
The Sea Hunters (non-fiction), Flood Tide, and Clive Cussler Dirk Pitt®
Revealed. Cussler is also the author, with Paul Kemprecos, of the first in a
new Dirk Pitt spinoff series - The NUMA files.
Cussler has been married to his wife, Barbara Knight, for more than 44 years.
They have three children, two grandchildren, and divide their time between the mountains
of Colorado and the deserts of Arizona.
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