Clive (Eric) Cussler is best known for his bestselling maritime adventure novels featuring the
character Dirk Pitt. Pitt works as an engineer and agent of the fictional government agency
NUMA, the National Underwater and Marine Agency. The first of Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels was
The Mediterranean Caper, published in 1973. (A later novel, Pacific Vortex!, was published in
1983 but takes place prior to The Mediterranean Caper.) Cussler started writing in 1965, when
his wife took an evening job that left him alone after putting the children to bed.
Cussler founded an organization called NUMA in 1979, a non-profit dedicated to maritime
archaeology, especially concerning the conservation of shipwrecks. NUMA's focus has been on
American ships from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with a special interest in the vessels
employed in the Civil War. Cussler led NUMA until his death in 2020.
In 1999 Cussler published the novel Serpent as the first in a new series, The NUMA Files, which
features NUMA Special Assignments team leader Kurt Austin. These novels take place in the
same universe as the Dirk Pitt books, with Pitt appearing in several of them.
Cussler also frequently wrote himself into his novels. The first time, in the novel Dragon, he
intended the appearance as a joke. But in later novels Clive Cussler is a mysterious figure who
often appears in disguise and offers assistance or key information for the protagonists.
The last film adaptation of one of his novels was the 2005 film Sahara, starring Matthew
McConaughey as Dirk Pitt.Read moreRead less
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