Clavell, James

▪ 1995

      British-born U.S. novelist (b. Oct. 10, 1924, Sydney, Australia—d. Sept. 6, 1994, Vevey, Switz.), used his gifts as a storyteller to create long, richly detailed historical adventure novels set in exotic locales. Though his books were not popular with the critics, they were best-sellers; some 21 million copies were sold during his 40-year career. At the age of nine months, Clavell was taken to England from Australia, where his father—a Royal Navy officer—was stationed. During World War II he joined the Royal Artillery, and in 1942 he was captured by the Japanese in Java. He spent 3 1/2 years in the infamous Changi prison camp near Singapore, which was so brutal that only 10,000 of its 150,000 inmates survived. Clavell left military service in 1946 after a motorcycle accident left him with a limp. He held various odd jobs before discovering an interest in films and working first as a film distributor and then, after moving to the U.S., in television production in New York and as a screenwriter in Hollywood. He wrote screenplays for such films as The Fly (1958) and Watusi (1959), was one of the writers of The Great Escape (1963), and wrote, produced, and directed Five Gates to Hell (1959), Walk like a Dragon (1960), To Sir with Love (1966), and The Last Valley (1969). He became a U.S. citizen in 1963. During a 1960 screenwriters' strike, Clavell wrote his first novel, King Rat (1962, filmed 1965), based on his prison camp experiences. Tai-Pan (1966), Shogun (1975), and Noble House (1981), all of them set in the Far East, became best-sellers and were filmed as television miniseries; Shogun (1980) was second only to Roots in TV audience ratings. Clavell's later books include Whirlwind (1986) and Gai-Jin (1993).

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▪ American writer

in full  James Dumaresq Clavell  

born Oct. 10, 1924, Sydney, N.S.W., Australia

died Sept. 6, 1994, Vevey, Switz.

      Australian author of popular action novels set within Asian cultures.

      Clavell grew up in England and later became a member of the Royal Artillery. A motorcycle injury caused him to leave the military in 1946. He developed an interest in film, and his first writings were screenplays, such as The Fly (1958) and The Great Escape (1963; with others). Although he continued to write screenplays and direct films for several years, in 1960 Clavell began writing novels as well. He based his first novel, King Rat (1962; filmed 1965), on his experiences as a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II. Struggles for power and wealth and, secondarily, sex and love occupy his fiction as East and West and male and female clash. Clavell's other novels include Tai-Pan (1966; filmed 1986) and Noble House (1981; TV miniseries 1988), set in historic and modern Hong Kong; Shōgun (1975), set in 17th-century Japan; Whirlwind (1986), set in Iran during its 1979 revolution; and Gai-Jin (1993), set in 19th-century Japan. Many of Clavell's novels were made into television miniseries; the 1980 version of Shōgun was one of the most popular miniseries ever made.

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