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Robert Lowell Moore Jr., AKA Robin Moore,
Robin Moore passed away Feb 21st 2008, in Hopkinsville, KY
This is a sad day. Robin Moore was a good author, a gentleman and friend of
Special Forces.
Robin Moore, who was born on Halloween Night
(October 31) 1925 in Boston, Massachusetts, always wanted to be a writer. True
to his Halloween birth-date, Robin's choice of topics have frequently leaned
toward the supernatural and macabre.
Robin was raised in Concord, Massachusetts and attended Middlesex School and
Belmont Hill School. After graduating from Belmont Hill, he joined the armed
forces and flew a tour of combat missions over Germany during the closing days
of World War II. He graduated from Harvard College in 1949 and went to New York
to produce television shows. In 1952 he returned to Boston to work for the
Sheraton Hotel Company co-founded by his father, Robert Lowell Moore senior.
But, what Robin really wanted to do was write.
His first novel, Pitchman was about the burgeoning TV business. He continued to
work for Sheraton and as a result of trying to establish Sheraton hotels in the
Caribbean in the late 50s he ran across Fidel Castro which led to his
chronicling the Cuban communist dictator's guerrilla campaign in a non-fiction
book The Devil To Pay. A third novel about Robin's family business, Hotel
Tomayne, brought about the end of his career in hotel management and was the
start of his full-time writing career.
In 1963 his Harvard classmate, Robert Kennedy, President John F. Kennedy's
brother, made it possible for Robin to join the US Army Special Forces as a
civilian. Robin went through almost a year of training and then went to Vietnam
with the Special Forces and wrote his definitive novel of the Vietnam War, The
Green Berets which was published in May of 1965.
The French Connection followed this first success when Robin joined the New York
police department in one of their most spectacular drug busts. Robin continued
to write and his next big hit was The Happy Hooker with Xaviera Hollander, the
story of the most controversial madam in New York City.
Robin then went on to write many more novels about international intrigue and
adventure. He often traveled internationally to gather background material for
his books.
Robin returned to Southeast Asia to write The Country Team about American
diplomacy and Green Beret operations in Asia. The Khaki Mafia was next,
chronicling the adventures of a beautiful, blond Australian girl's adventures as
an entertainer and talent booker to US Army posts throughout Vietnam.
A stint as a treasure hunter in the Caribbean led to The Treasure Hunter. In the
70s Robin spent a year in Iran and the middle east researching his next novel,
Dubai, an epic of gold smuggling, oil exploration, and political subversion in
the Arab world. Two novels of gambling followed. The first was the story of a
great con game, The Big Paddle and the other was the heartbreaking tale of a
compulsive gambler, Compulsion. Robin returned to his hotel background in The
Fifth Estate.
One of his more recent novels, The White Tribe, was the result of three years
spent in Africa observing American and European mercenaries fighting communist
terrorism. After Africa Robin traveled to Russia where he did extensive research
leading to The Moscow Connection, the story of the sale of Russian nuclear
weapons to rouge nations. His latest book, The Sparrowhook Curse, a paranormal
tale of love and family revenge, was the result of many years summering at his
parents island home on Cuttyhunk Island.
Courtesy of Paul F. Campbell, SF Online Message
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