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Nelson Demille Books |
Nelson Demille was born in New York in 1943, and raised by his Canadian father (serving in the American Navy at that time), and his mother, who was
a native of Brooklyn. The family moved to Elmont, Long Island and his father became a house builder - his mother was a homemaker, and raised Nelson and his three brothers. Demille was very interested in sports and became involved in track, wrestling and football whilst attending the Elmont Public school system, before graduating Memorial High School in 1962. Although he attended Hofstra University, Demille didn't graduate, as he left to join the Army in 1966, where he served for three years as an infantry lieutenant. He also spend a tour in Vietnam as a platoon leader, an experience which he draws on in his novels Word Of Honor and Up Country, two notable Nelson Demille books ...
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After the end of his military service, Nelson went back to univeristy (Hofstra), where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science and History. He was married with two children, but the marriage came to an end with his divorce. Demille started to write in 1974, and by his own admission, doesn't know why! He held a series of jobs between 1970 and at that time, felt the need to try something different, starting out by writing detective stories base around New York Police activities. These have been out of print for some time and difficult to find. His first big novel, By The Rivers Of Babylon, was published In 1978, received critical acclaim and was also a commercial success. His subsequent fourteen novels have continued and built on this first success, and several of his fictional characters have become favorites with the pubic and have featured in film. Well known charcaters include John Corey, Ben Tyson (played by Don Johnson in the TNT movie of " Word of Honor", and superb villain, Asad Khalil, a mis-maligned terrorist from Libya, driven by issues from his childhood. Demille's intelligence was never under question, and he was prompted one time to sit the American Mensa examination, which he passed. The argument rages on about the usefulness of such IQ tests, but a general level of 154 is required to gain entrance. A past president of The Mystery Writers Of America, he is also a member of The Author's Guild, and holds no less than three Honorary Doctorate Degrees (Hofra University, Long Island Univeristy and Dowling College). Demille married a second time and has a son from that marriage.
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