David Morrell

Biography

DAVID MORRELL

David Morrell is the award-winning author of First Blood, the novel in which Rambo was created. He was born in 1943 in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. In 1960, at the age of seventeen, he became a fan of the classic television series, Route 66, about two young men in a Corvette convertible traveling the United States in search of America and themselves. The scripts by Stirling Silliphant so impressed Morrell that he decided to become a writer.
In 1966, the work of another writer (Hemingway scholar Philip Young) prompted Morrell to move to the United States, where he studied with Young at the Pennsylvania State University and received his M.A. and Ph. D. in American literature. There, he also met the esteemed science-fiction author William Tenn (real name Philip Klass), who taught Morrell the basics of fiction writing. The result was First Blood, a ground-breaking novel about a returned Vietnam veteran suffering from post-trauma stress disorder who comes into conflict with a small-town police chief and fights his own version of the Vietnam War.
That “father” of modern action novels was published in 1972 while Morrell was a professor in the English department at the University of Iowa. He taught there from 1970 to 1986, simultaneously writing other novels, many of them international bestsellers, including the classic spy trilogy, The Brotherhood of the Rose (the basis for a top-rated NBC miniseries that premiered after a Super Bowl), The Fraternity of the Stone, and The League of Night and Fog.
Eventually wearying of two professions, Morrell gave up his academic tenure in order to write full time. Shortly afterward, his fifteen-year-old son Matthew was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer and died in 1987, a loss that haunts not only Morrell’s life but his work, as in his memoir about Matthew, Fireflies, and his novel Desperate Measures, whose main character lost a son.
“The mild-mannered professor with the bloody-minded visions,” as one reviewer called him, Morrell is the author of thirty-three books, including such high-action thrillers as The Naked Edge, Creepers, and The Spy Who Came for Christmas (set in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he lives). Always interested in different ways to tell a story, he wrote the six-part comic-book series, Captain America: The Chosen. His writing book, The Successful Novelist, analyzes what he has learned during his four decades as an author.
Morrell is a co-founder of the International Thriller Writers organization. Noted for his research, he is a graduate of the National Outdoor Leadership School for wilderness survival as well as the G. Gordon Liddy Academy of Corporate Security. He is also an honorary lifetime member of the Special Operations Association and the Association of Intelligence Officers. He has been trained in firearms, hostage negotiation, assuming identities, executive protection, and car fighting, among numerous other action skills that he describes in his novels. To research the aerial sequences in The Shimmer, he became a private pilot.
Morrell is an Edgar and Anthony nominee as well as a three-time recipient of the distinguished Stoker Award from the Horror Writers Association. The International Thriller Writers organization gave him its prestigious ThrillerMaster Award. With eighteen million copies in print, his work has been translated into twenty-six languages.

Books

John Barth: An Introduction
Price: $4.99 USD. Words: 72,540. Language: English. Published: December 16, 2015 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Nonfiction » Biography » Literary biography, Nonfiction » Literary criticism » American / General
Acclaimed thriller writer David Morrell wrote his PhD dissertation about master author, John Barth. In it, Morrell examines Barth’s early fiction, using interviews with Barth, his agent, and his editors as well as unpublished essays and letters. The result is what Morrell calls “the story behind the stories” as well as an indication of Barth’s influence on Morrell’s own work.
Extreme Denial
Price: $5.99 USD. Words: 124,770. Language: English. Published: June 6, 2013 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Fiction » Thriller & suspense » Action & suspense, Fiction » Thriller & suspense » Spies & espionage
From the author of the classic espionage saga, The Brotherhood of the Rose, comes a compelling novel of intrigue and second chances. After an ex-spy lowers his guard and falls in love, his lover’s house explodes and she flees with a stranger. He learns that she has a mysterious past and that she knows he worked for the CIA. Was she only using him to protect her? He sets out to find the truth.
Scavenger
Price: $5.99 USD. Words: 82,630. Language: English. Published: March 21, 2013 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Fiction » Thriller & suspense » Action & suspense
The main characters of David Morrell's award-winning Creepers return for another harrowing thriller about an obsession with the past. A desperate hunt for a lost time capsule uncovers an unspeakable 100-year-old crime that threatens to be repeated in the present.
Frank Sinatra: The Artist and His Music
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 29,000. Language: English. Published: January 24, 2013 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Nonfiction » Music » History & Criticism
In Frank Sinatra: The Artist and His Music, bestselling David Morrell discusses the talent and determination that led Sinatra to become the greatest interpretive singer of the recording era. Based on more than forty years of listening and reading, Morrell provides an in-depth analysis of Sinatra’s career. After you read it, you might never listen to Sinatra or any other singer the same way again.
Nelson Riddle: The Man Behind the Music
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 11,460. Language: English. Published: January 24, 2013 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Nonfiction » Music » History & Criticism
In Nelson Riddle: The Man Behind the Music, bestselling Morrell discusses the career of a musical genius, who changed popular music and proved that a great arranger is as important as a great song and a great singer. This groundbreaking study describes Riddle’s famous collaborations with Nat “King” Cole, Rosemary Clooney, and Frank Sinatra, whose career Riddle helped to resurrect.
The Attitude Adjuster: Three Cavanaugh/Protector Stories
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 22,220. Language: English. Published: September 19, 2012 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Fiction » Thriller & suspense » Spies & espionage, Fiction » Thriller & suspense » Action & suspense
Following Cavanaugh’s missions in The Protector and The Naked Edge, Rambo-creator David Morrell presents three short stories that explore the psychology of a warrior compelled to risk his life for strangers. “Most people muddle through their lives,” Cavanaugh tells a client. “All I can do is hope that if I keep them from dying a while longer, maybe they’ll find a way to justify remaining alive.”
Rambo III
Price: $5.99 USD. Words: 61,060. Language: English. Published: May 25, 2012 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Fiction » Adventure » General
The most dangerous man in the world is back! Rambo is in exile far from home in Thailand, vowing to renounce violence and war. When his country calls him once again, he refuses to accept. But then he learns that Colonel Trautman, the only man he trusts, has been kidnapped by Soviets on a mission that Rambo rejected. For Rambo, it’s a call to arms—and a mission back into hell.
Rambo (First Blood Part II)
Price: $5.99 USD. Words: 59,560. Language: English. Published: May 25, 2012 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Fiction » Adventure » Action
Rambo is in prison for his one-man war against a police chief. His former commanding officer arrives to release him on 2 conditions. First, Rambo must return to the prison from which he escaped and find the Americans rumored to be held there. Second? Don’t rescue the prisoners. Only bring back photographs. Do not engage the enemy. The first part is difficult. But the second is impossible.
Rambo and Me: The Story Behind the Story, an essay (The David Morrell Cultural Icon Series)
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 8,780. Language: English. Published: April 20, 2012 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Nonfiction » History » Essays
Award-winning author David Morrell created the character of Rambo in his 1972 novel, First Blood, which has been called “the father of the modern action novel.” Rambo went on to become one of the five most recognized thriller icons, along with Sherlock Holmes and Harry Potter. In this in-depth essay, for the first time Morrell tells the full story about how the novel and Rambo were created.
Marilyn Monroe: Legend and Tragedy, an essay (The David Morrell Cultural-Icon Series)
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 7,720. Language: English. Published: April 11, 2012 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Nonfiction » Biography » Celebrity biography
Few movie stars made as great an impact as Marilyn Monroe. Two of the men she married made a powerful cultural impact. In this moving essay, David Morrell analyses Monroe’s poignant life, which had more significance than any movie in which she appeared. Even her most knowledgeable fans will find something new in this in-depth homage to a star whose luster outshone her films.
John Wayne: The Westerns
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 10,360. Language: English. Published: April 6, 2012 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Nonfiction » Biography » Celebrity biography, Nonfiction » Entertainment » History & Criticism
Few film actors had the lasting popularity of John Wayne, especially when he appeared in westerns. In this comprehensive essay, Rambo-creator David Morrell analyzes Wayne’s career in westerns and explores his fascinating, complex personality, including his Latin studies in high school and his skills as a chess player. Even Wayne’s most knowledgeable fans will be surprised by this insightful essay.
Testament
Price: $5.99 USD. Words: 81,090. Language: English. Published: March 23, 2012 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Fiction » Adventure » Action
After creating Rambo in his debut novel, First Blood, David Morrell wrote Testament. Its publisher called it “almost unbearably involving.” Hunted by a powerful enemy, a man and his family flee their home and civilization. This thriller classic influenced many later thriller authors. It is not for the faint of heart. This special e-book edition has been newly revised and updated.
The Architecture of Snow (The David Morrell Short Fiction Series)
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 14,060. Language: English. Published: February 22, 2012 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Fiction » Mystery & detective » General, Fiction » Thriller & suspense » General
A great literary mystery of the 20'th century concerns J. D. Salinger. In the 1960s, the revered author suddenly stopped publishing. In Morrell’s haunting story, an author similar to Salinger submits a manuscript after a 4 decade absence. Why has he resurfaced? When editor Tom Neal goes on a search, he uncovers the disturbing truth behind a tragic mystery that changes his life in unimaginable ways
The Interrogator
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 10,700. Language: English. Published: February 8, 2012 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Fiction » Thriller & suspense » Spies & espionage, Fiction » Themes & motifs » Political
(5.00 from 1 review)
In this tense, timely thriller, an interrogator finds himself in a remote bunker and an even more remote region of the human soul as he confronts the most hardened enemy he has ever faced and the most difficult choice he has ever been forced to make. “The Interrogator” asks the question: Are there moral limits to the way information should be obtained to defend one’s country?
The Totem
Price: $5.99 USD. Words: 198,510. Language: English. Published: December 21, 2011 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Fiction » Horror » General
"Something is on the prowl in the forests and foothills outside the small Wyoming town of Potter's Field, something that mutilates but does not feed, that kills indiscriminately and without reason, at night, by moonlight. As the body count mounts, police chief Nathan Slaughter and the town's medical examiner try to find out who or what is doing the killing- WaPo Book World
My Name is Legion
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 9,900. Language: English. Published: December 12, 2011 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Fiction » Adventure » War & military adventure, Fiction » Thriller & suspense » General
On a blistering battlefield in World War II, the legendary French Foreign Legion confronts its toughest enemy: itself. A cruel twist of war divides the Legion into those who fight for a Free France and those who fight for the German-controlled French Vichy Government. Now, men who previously lived, fought, and died together are forced to spill one another’s blood.
Last Reveille
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 58,710. Language: English. Published: December 7, 2011 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Fiction » Historical » Western & American frontier, Fiction » Thriller & suspense » General
For this 35th anniversary e-book edition, the author revised the original text.Influenced by Sam Peckinpah, this story dramatizes American soldiers as they clash with Pancho Villa and his men along the Mexican border. Told through the eyes of an old scout, who realizes his days are numbered, teaches a young recruit about the past, at a cost he never expected to pay.
Fireflies: A Father's Tale of Love and Loss
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 53,340. Language: English. Published: December 5, 2011 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Nonfiction » Biography » Autobiographies & Memoirs
In the bestselling novels of suspense master David Morrell, fear is the main subject. But Morrell himself had never known genuine terror until he watched his 15-year-old son wage a heroic but doomed struggle with cancer. This is one father’s powerful and unforgettable story of fierce love, impenetrable loss, and an unexpected, breathtaking encounter with the miraculous.
The Covenant of the Flame
Price: $5.99 USD. Words: 139,280. Language: English. Published: November 23, 2011 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Fiction » Thriller & suspense » Action & suspense, Fiction » Thriller & suspense » Spies & espionage
Reporter Tess Drake discovers a mysterious altar in the apartment of a friend whose charred body was discovered in a nearby park. The meaning of that altar propels Tess on a furious hunt for the truth about what happened to her friend, a labyrinth of intrigue and danger that leads to the highest levels of power as well as to the depths of a secret cave in Spain.
The Fraternity of the Stone: An Espionage Thriller
Price: $5.99 USD. Words: 122,060. Language: English. Published: November 11, 2011 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Fiction » Thriller & suspense » Spies & espionage, Fiction » Adventure » Action
Drew MacLane is a star agent in Scalpel, an organization named for its purpose: precise surgical removal. Assassination. Then MacLane decides to stop killing. He withdraws and retreats to a monastery, where for six years he lives the life of a hermit. But then someone tracks him down, leaving a trail of bodies. Someone who knows all about him - and will stop at nothing to destroy him.
The Brotherhood of the Rose: An Espionage Thriller
Price: $5.99 USD. Words: 115,570. Language: English. Published: November 7, 2011 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Fiction » Thriller & suspense » Spies & espionage, Fiction » Adventure » Action
They were orphans, Chris and Saul -- raised in a Philadelphia school for boys, bonded by friendship, and devoted to a mysterious man called Eliot. He visited them and brought them candy. He treated them like sons. He trained them to be assassins. Now he is trying desperately to have them killed.
Nightscape
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 75,140. Language: English. Published: November 4, 2011 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Fiction » Thriller & suspense » General, Fiction » Anthologies » Horror
In his second collection, Morrell leads you through an adrenaline-charged NightScape of serial killers, third world revolutionaries, a policeman stalking a murderous cult, a son obsessed by his cryogenically frozen father, a psychology professor forced to suffer intense confinement, and a doctor combating an epidemic that he fears will destroy the world.
The Protector
Price: $5.99 USD. Words: 110,780. Language: English. Published: October 28, 2011 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Fiction » Thriller & suspense » Spies & espionage
Trained by Delta Force, calm in moments of absolute terror, Cavanaugh stops threats before they strike. His latest assignment: protect a brilliant scientist with a secret so extraordinary he needs to adopt a new identity. For Cavanaugh, helping Daniel Prescott is just another job. Until it explodes, Prescott vanishes, and the protector finds himself in a fast, furious battle for his life.
The Naked Edge
Price: $5.99 USD. Words: 119,200. Language: English. Published: October 19, 2011 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Fiction » Thriller & suspense » Action & suspense, Fiction » Adventure » Action
Once they were boyhood best friends, playing in the woods near their homes, pretending to be soldiers behind enemy lines. Grownup, they belonged to Delta Force and worked as protectors for the world's best security company. Now their lives have taken drastically different paths, pitting them against one another, forcing them to play their boyhood game again, this time to learn who dies.
They
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 8,820. Language: English. Published: October 17, 2011 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Fiction » Horror » General, Fiction » Adventure » Action
In a remote valley in the dead of winter, a pioneer family encounters a pack of mysterious animals with uncommon ferocity and intelligence. As a blizzard worsens, the trap tightens until only a twelve-year-old girl holds the secret of survival. This chilling e-story proves why David Morrell received a lifetime-achievement ThrillerMaster Award from the International Thriller Writers organization.
First Blood
Price: $5.99 USD. Words: 82,420. Language: English. Published: October 7, 2011 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Fiction » Adventure » Action
First came the man: a young wanderer in a fatigue coat and long hair. Then came the legend, as John Rambo sprang from the pages of FIRST BLOOD to take his place in the American cultural landscape.
The Spy Who Came for Christmas
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 55,270. Language: English. Published: September 30, 2011 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Fiction » Thriller & suspense » Spies & espionage
In The Spy Who Came for Christmas, David Morrell retells the Christmas story against a background of espionage and action. Dramatizing the strength of the holiday spirit, he again shows the inventiveness that prompted the International Thriller Writers organization to give him its prestigious ThrillerMaster award.
The Shimmer
Price: $5.99 USD. Words: 100,920. Language: English. Published: September 16, 2011 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Fiction » Mystery & detective » General, Fiction » Science fiction » General
Since 1889, mysterious lights have appeared outside Rostov, a remote Texas town. Now police officer Dan Page follows the trail of his missing wife from New Mexico to Texas and discovers that she and hundreds of spectators have become enraptured by the lights. To save his wife, Page must confront the mystery of the lights and the conspiracy that surrounds them.
Creepers
Price: $5.99 USD. Words: 76,950. Language: English. Published: June 22, 2011 and represented by Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Categories: Fiction » Horror » General, Fiction » Thriller & suspense » General
On a cold night, 5 people begin preparations to break in to the Paragon Hotel.The 5 people are "creepers," the slang term for urban explorers: city archeologists with a passion for investigating abandoned buildings and their dying secrets. After the group enters the rat-infested tunnel leading to the hotel, it becomes clear that they will get much more than they bargained for.

David Morrell's tag cloud

abandoned buildings    action    action adventure    action and adventure    action thriller    action thrillers    adventure    american cinema    american film    american icon    american prisoners of war    anxiety disorder    arthur miller    asbury park    assassinations    assassins    astrological phenomenon    audie murphy    battle of camerone    bereavement    big bands    billy wilder    bioengineering    black ops    body guards    bodyguards    book publishing    book to movie    campus protests    cancer    canyon road    captain jean danjou    carolco pictures    cavanaugh    celebrities    celebrity    chairman of the board    chemical weapons    childrens cancer    christmas story    cia    cia spy thrillers    clark gable    conspiracies    conspiracy    conspiracy theories    conspiracy thrillers    controversial death    coping    counterterroism    creepers    crime    cult    david morrell    death    death of a child    delta force    editor    environmental thrillers    environmentalism    epidemics    espionage    espionage thriller    espoinage    ewings sarcoma    excop    extraordinary rendition    fabulism    family relationship    farming community    fatherson relationship    fear    fiction about publishing    fiction writing    film composers    film star    financial fraud    first blood    frank balenger    frank sinatra    french foreign legion    friendship    ghost town    government    government conspiracy    great american songbook    grief    harry james    hightech    historical fiction    historical thriller    historical thrillers    horror    howard hawks    internet pornography    interrogation    james cameron    jd salinger    joe dimaggio    john barth    john f kennedy    john ford    john wayne    judy garland    kinseys sexual behavior    knives    linda ronstadt    literary mysteries    literary suspense    loss    lost in the funhouse    marfa lights    marilyn monroe    mayhem    medal of honor    medical technology    memoir    mens adventure    metafiction    mexican revolution    mexico    military    military conspiracy    military fiction    military thriller    military thrillers    militia group    mithraism    mithras    montsgur    monument valley    mourning    murder    music arrangers    musical arrangements    musicians    mutant animals    mutants    my way    mysterious death    mystery    nat king cole    nelson riddle    new jersey    new mexico    nihilism    nlp    ol blue eyes    opus dei    orphans    outdoor action    outdoor adventure    outdoor horror    pancho villa    panic attacks    paramilitary group    paranormal    peggy lee    penn state    philip young    pioneer stories    playboy magazine    political thrillers    pollution    ponzi scheme    popular music    popular singing    post modern    post traumatic stress disorder    postmodern    pow    prisoners of war    protection    protective agents    psychological thriller    ptsd    ralph waldo emerson    rambo    red river    relationships    religious thriller    religious thrillers    rosemary clooney    route 66    russian mafia    sam peckinpah    santa fe    science fiction    security agencies    serial killer    sex symbol    short story    soldiers    southwestern novel    soviet afghanistan war    spies    spy    stage coach    stagecoach    stalkers    stirling silliphant    supernatural    survival    suspense    suspense thriller    suspense thrillers    sylvester stallone    technology    terrorism    texas    the searchers    the voice    thriller    thrillers    thrillers about publishing    time capsules    tommy dorsey    tragic death    twentieth century fox    urban exploration    urban explorers    us cavalry    video games    vietnam veteran    vietnam war    virus    war    war thriller    waterboarding    western    western films    western movies    westerns    wild animal    wilderness horror    wilderness survival    world war 1    world war ii    ya horror    young adult horror