Fun Facts Friday: Robert Ludlum

Robert Ludlum (25 May, 1927 – 12 March, 2001) was an American author who is best known as the creator of Jason Bourne.

Books by Robert Ludlum*

1. Ludlum was born in New York City. He was an adopted child, but never found who his birth parents were.
2. In 1951, the author earned a B.A. in drama from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT.
3. Before writing books, Mr. Ludlum served in the United States Marine Corps and a show producer at Grant Lee Theater in Fort Lee, NJ and at the Playhouse on the Mall in Paramus, NJ.
4. Many of Mr. Ludlum’s books were inspired by historical and contemporary conspiracy theories.
5. Many of his books were made into movies and TV series, however the movies significantly depart from the story-line, while the mini-series follow the story more closely.
6. In 2001 firefighters were called to the author’s home in Florida where they discovered him on fire in a reclining chair (incapacitated due to a quadruple bypass surgery) a full six minutes after there were called. This event, and the fact that his second wife was belligerent and uncooperative (not to mention, never bothering to pick up a fire extinguisher) led to some bizarre conspiracy theories. The cause of the fire was never found.
7. Mr. Ludlum died 30 days after the fire.
8. The author also wrote under the names Jonathan Ryder and Michael Shepherd.
9. During Mr. Ludlum’s lifetime, there has been more than 300 million copies of his books in print.
10. Robert Ludlum’s books have been published in 40 countries, and translated into 33 languages.

Books by Robert Ludlum*

Zohar — Man of la Book
*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account