TOM CLANCY - FIRST DAY COVER SIGNED CO-SIGNED BY: ELMORE J. LEONARD JR., CLIVE CUSSLER, GEORGE V. HIGGINS - HFSID 223477

BEST-SELLING AUTHORS: TOM CLANCY, ELMORE LEONARD, GEORGE V. HIGGINS and CLIVE CUSSLER
Authors Clancy, Leonard, Higgins and Cussler sign a FDC honoring "A Nation of Readers"
First Day Cover signed: "Tom Clancy", "Elmore Leonard," "George V. Higgins" and "Clive Cussler", 6½x3½. FDC honoring "A Nation of Readers", 20-cent stamp affixed, postmarked Washington, D.C., October 16, 1964, FIRST DAY OF ISSUE. CLANCY (1947-2013) combined his lifelong interests in the military and technology in his first novel, The Hunt For Red October (1984). The book, which became an instant best-seller, introduced his signature character, ex-Marine Jack Ryan, who became a government operative in later novels, including Patriot Games (1986) and Clear and Present Danger (1989). By 2000, Ryan was the newly elected President, facing sinister forces at work in China in The Bear and The Dragon. LEONARD began writing Western fiction in 1953. His novel Hombre was voted in 1961 onto the Western Writers' Association list of the greatest Western novels of all time. More recently, he has achieved even greater success in the crime genre. His breakout novel Glitz (1985), became a best seller, as have his subsequent books. In 1992, mystery writers gave him their Grand Master award. Lawyer and former prosecutor HIGGINS was immediately recognized as a premier crime novelist when The Friends of Eddie Coyle appeared in 1972. He also writes political fiction, as in A Choice of Enemies (1984). Higgins has written nonfiction works on politics, baseball, and the craft of writing. Action/adventure writer CUSSLER's novels feature underwater explorer Dirk Pitt, who has saved the world from disaster in such yarns as Raise the Titanic, Inca Gold, Sahara and Atlantis Found.The agency for which Pitt works, the National Underwater & Marine Agency (NUMA) really exists. It was formed by Cussler himself in 1978 as a non-profit organization to explore shipwrecks and has discovered over 60 of them, including the Carpathia, which tried to rescue the Titanic, and the U-20, which sank the Lusitania. All four authors have had works turned into films. Fine condition.