I just read western critic Jon Tuska passed away a few years back. I didn't know.
Jon seemed pretty dismissive of LL's work in general, but I noticed in recent years that he had "edited" several LL audiobooks in a fairly high profile way, taking advantage of their PD status I'm assuming.
There is a whole long and interesting backstory regarding this situation, and Bantam's creative way of thwarting another publisher wanting to take advantage of some of the older short stories not being protected by copyright.
The 80's Bantam editions LAW OF DESERT BORN, THE HILLS OF HOMIDICE and two large volumes of collected pulp novels TRAIL TO CRAZY MAN and RIDER OF THE RUBY HILLS were published to circumvent publisher Carroll & Graf's planned editions, each with a little badge on the cover stating they were the "only authorized editions". Bantam beat them to the punch with a better product, supported by the author.
I suspect most of us bought only the Bantam editions in support of LL. I know I did.
There were a lot of people who seemed bothered by LL's success. They might criticize him, rightly or not, but they weren't really humble enough to recognize that Dad wasn't succeeding or failing based on what they thought.
I'm not a Clive Cussler fan, but I can see why some people love his books. He was the same as Dad in so many ways. He LOVED what he did and that love exploded form every page. He had a lot of energy and he had an ability to transfer it to the reader.
If someone is popular, and you don't get it, it's probably you.
Personally, my only issue with Tuska was that (in my opinion) I don't think he understood the book business very well ... either that or he was quoting or learning from people who didn't understand it all that well. But I'd have to re-examine a bunch of stuff he wrote to dig out the problems and correct them and I just don't have the time.
