RAISE THE TITANIC! INSCRIBED BY CLIVE CUSSLER WITH SKETCH

CUSSLER, Clive. Raise the Titanic! New York: Viking, (1976). Octavo, original half green cloth, original dust jacket. $900.

First edition of Cussler's bestselling thriller, the third in his Dirk Pitt adventure series, boldly signed on the title page by him with his sketch of the Titanic sinking and his inscription, "To M— Don't let it go! Your pal, Clive Cussler."

"Cussler is often compared to Tom Clancy, since [Cussler's] Dirk Pitt, like Clancy's Jack Ryan, draws a government check and performs his miracles on or under water… but Cussler's true links are with Alistair MacLean, Mickey Spillane and, especially, Ian Fleming. Dirk Pitt shares James Bond's thirst for booze, cars and babes, and his habit of cheating death while saving the world… In 1979 [Cussler] used his Raise the Titanic! millions to begin traveling the world in search of shipwrecks… 'There is a piece of me in Dirk Pitt, and a slice of him in me,'" Cussler said (New York Times).

Book fine; small closed tear to lower front panel of colorful about-fine dust jacket.