Hi. I've been a reader of Cussler's since the late 70's when I was a boy. In 1981, I wrote him a letter about Night Probe, newly published at the time, specifically the Brian Shaw character. He was nice enough to write me back a nice handwritten letter and to send me a page from the original draft of Night Probe. Now I'm pushing 40 and have gotten concerned about things like insurance and such, it occurred to me that I have no idea how to value the letter and the draft page. I was wondering if there is anyone here that might be able to help me in this regard or who could point me towards the appropriate source for such information. I know there's a collector's guide out there but I've not been able to access a copy. And I've had no luck trying to find record of any sales of such items. Thanks in advance for any help.

w: Hi Thomas and Welcome to the forum

I'm pretty sure someone here will be able to help you out ;)

Hi Thomas! Welcome to the forum! I got out my Collector's Guide To Clive Cussler by Wayne Valero and hyere is what he has to say about manuscript pages given throughout the years by Cussler.

Page 22 Secopnd paragraph

It is known that pages from following manuscripts have been distributed: Raise the Titanic!, Vixen 03, Deep Six, Treasure, Sahara, Cyclops, Inca Gold, Shock Wave, Flood Tide, Serpent,and Atlantis Found.

So I would say you have a rare item indeed! Wayne goes on to say that manuscript pages are hard to come by and are a rare but welcome edition to any Cussler Collection. He also says they do not appear often on the rare book market and when they do, they command a great deal of money. Raise the Titanic! pages have been known to go for as much as $250!

I know a certain member on this forum that would love your page because NIght Probe is her fave. :lol:

That help?

Wow Liz, I didn't know you could see me drooling from here. :lol:


Liz is right, I read your post at least 20 times to make sure I had it right and if I had it.........well I have no idea because I wouldn't be able to get over the shock.

Wow, that was fast! The letter is dated January 12, 1982. I had asked him about how he was developing Dirk as a character. He replied "In order to keep Dirk Pitt unique as a series hero I make him the pivotal character amid several other main characters. I keep him rather shadowy on purpose, letting out a little more of his personality each book. He's not like a Bond, or Travis Magee or Matt Helm. There are plots going on in the stories that he's never aware of. As to Brian Shaw being James Bond, what do you think?"

The manuscript page is a single leaf numbered 264/266. He signed the draft on 266 "To Tom a page from the original draft of "Night Probe" Clive Cussler 1-82". 266 appears to be the beginning of a chapter; 46 is underlined at the top. I'm not sure if it does correspond to the book as it has been awhile since I looked at a copy of Night Probe. It has Rudi and Heidi standing over the moon pool of the Ocean Venturer as the RSV is about to be lowered into the St. Lawrence. There are no penciled corrections on this side, only a whole lot of XXXX'ing out. 264, presumably the ending of the previous chapter, has the President meeting with Sandecker, who gives a classic evaluation of finding the treaty on the Manhattan Limited "Frankly, Mr. President, I don't [think] we stand the chance of a titmouse in an eagle's claw." Think is penciled in. There is a fair amount of hand correction and XXXX'ing out on this side.

Thanks for the info from the Collector's Guide. Interesting to know I have something unique. I could probably post some scans of it if anyone is interested.

Yes, if it won't hurt the document, I would love to see pictures of it!

What an awesome piece for your collection!!!!! Yes, Julie, every one can see you drooling over this. :lol: :lol:

OK, I'll try and get some up as soon as I can. I'll put them into a pdf and post the link later today or tomorrow. Sorry for the delay but I'm a little busy right now.

Welcome to the forum, Thomas1966!


Apart from Clive Cussler's books, I too collect manuscript pages. The facinating thing about these pages is that Cussler reveals subtle changes to the manuscript before it goes to press.

Click the link below to see my Iceberg manuscript page.


Iceberg manuscript page

You are so lucky Tony to have this. Thanks for sharing with us. th:

You can check out the pictures of the letter and the page at this address. Let me know what you think, if you have any questions, etc.

To have 1 page is awesome ,but to have 3 is outragous. Have you considered a safe deposit box? To me theyare worth a fortune. th: beer:

Thanks for sharing these with us, Thomas1966! What an interesting read, especially to see how the word flow changes though the revision process.

Fascinating.

Ok, now that I've cleaned all the drool out of keyboard I can say WOW!!!!!!!!!!! Like Patty said those are worth a fortune in my mind. Treasure them!!!! Thanks for sharing them with us!

Hey Thomas, I emailed Wayne Valero(Collector's Guide To Clive Cussler) about your manuscript page and he thought it was great and said to make sure you cherish it!

Thanks for that boissee. I wonder what exactly it means that Night Probe doesn't show up in Wayne's list of books with manuscript pages distributed. Do I have the only one? Did Clive forget about giving me this page, or any others, from this manuscript? Is the (incomplete) manuscript for Night Probe still even in existence? Is this page really what it seems to be? There is admittedly a good amount of time elapsed Clive sending me the page and the publication of Wayne's book, enough time for a letter from a fifteen year old kid to slip between the cracks. Man, hard to believe that it was almost twenty-five years ago I wrote him that letter. Where does the time go? Seems like only yesterday that it was 1978 and I was finding my first Cussler book, Mediterranean Caper, in my public library.

If you could, please point Wayne towards the link to the pictures of the page and letter. I'd be interested to know what he has to say about them that might answer some of the above for me. I really wish now that I'd saved the envelope all this came in.

I know for a fact that I have a Night Probe manuscript page in my collection and I've seen another one sold on ebay about 2 years ago.

Clive does not retain the original complete manuscripts of his works because he hands individual pages out to friends, fans and family.

Ok Tony, now I have to clean the drool off my keyboard again!!!!! :)

Thomas, I did actually send Wayne the link to your pics. He is on vacation until after Christmas, but I'll let him know you are interested in his opinion on it.

Most of your questions can be answered by his book, I just didn't take the time to reproduce the whole thing! :lol: As far as Night Probe not being included in his book, I can't answer for him. You can email him info@cusslersociety.com.

Liz, do you have Wayne's new book? I ordered it from Bruce not too long ago so I'm curious if it would say anything about it in the new book.

I will check, but the new book is a bibliography, so there might not be much in the way of manuscript pages.

Does Cussler still do that? Give out manuscript pages that is...