Friday, January 11, 2013

Positive Quiddity: Novelist Thomas Gifford

Introduction by the Blog Author

Thomas Gifford was a distinct talent in the genre of the suspense novel in the last three decades of the twentieth century. Profoundly influenced by motion pictures, his novels are almost screenplays and always contain references to famous motion pictures. His heroes are flawed, humble, and profound in their irony. His heroines are mysterious and unpredictable. His villians are cold, ruthless psychopaths who do not value human life and who are eerily believable and close at hand.

It is my view that his only match among his contemporaries is Frederick Forsyth.

For Gifford at his best, I recommend The Wind Chill Factor and The Man from Lisbon. These are edgy novels with disturbing characters that beg to be re-read and examined in depth.
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From Wikipedia:

Thomas Eugene Gifford
(May 16, 1937 – October 31, 2000) was a best-selling American author of thriller novels. He was a graduate of Harvard University. He gained international fame with the crime novel The Glendower Legacy and later with the Vatican thriller The Assassini. The books posited George Washington as a British spy and the Roman Catholic Church as a criminal organization. The Glendower Legacy was made into a movie in 1981 under the name Dirty Tricks.

Gifford also published under the names Dana Clarins and Thomas Maxwell.

He died of cholangiocarcinma in his home in Dubuque, Iowa, on Halloween 2000.

Bibliography
Won awards at Harvard for creative writing; worked at The Sun Newspaper and The Guthrie; won Putnam's prize for best first novel (The Wind Chill Factor).

From Dubuque, Iowa, after graduating from college he moved to the Twin Cities, Minnesota, where he and his wife, Kari Sandven, had two children (Thomas Eaton, Rachel Claire). Divorced in 1969, he went on to marry Camille D'Ambrose, a local actress. They moved to Los Angeles for a few years, then returned to Orono, MN. Novels continued to flow from his fountain pen through the years. Gifford eventually moved to New York--a city he loved whose people were of infinite importance to him. In 1996, he turned his attention to renovating his childhood home in Dubuque, spending more time in Iowa than New York during his last years. He embraced the community of Dubuque, as they embraced their prodigal son. Featured in the Dubuque Telegraph Herald, Gifford recounted his every day occurrences, from learning the pleasure of getting a dog (Katie Maxwell, the Scottie) to peeves and pleasures of the town. Diagnosed with terminal cancer in February 2000, Gifford spent his remaining months reading, watching old movies, and chatting with friends and family. He died on October 31, 2000.
Gifford lived life large, had friends throughout the world, and lived life by his favorite credo--we're not here for a long time; we're here for a good time.

Books Published

As Thomas Gifford
  • 1975 – The Wind Chill Factor (winner of Putnam’s prize)
  • 1976 – The Cavanaugh Quest (nominated for the Edgar Award in 1977)
  • 1977 – The Man from Lisbon
  • 1978 – The Glendower Legacy
  • 1979 – Hollywood Gothic
  • 1990 – The Assassini
  • 1993 – Praetorian
  • 1994 – The First Sacrifice
  • 1996 – Saint's Rest
  • As Thomas Maxwell
    • 1986 – Kiss Me Once
    • 1987 – The Saberdene Variations
    • 1988 – Kiss Me Twice
    • 1990 – The Suspense Is Killing Me
    • As Dana Clarins
      • 1984 – Woman in the Window
      • 1985 – Guilty Parties
      • 1986 – The Woman Who Knew Too Much
      • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gifford

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