About the book: the kingdom (fargo adventure 3) clive cussler began writing novels in 1965 and published hisfirst work featuring his continuous series hero, dirk pitt(r), in1973. His first non-fiction, the sea hunters, was released in 1996. The board of governors of the maritime college, state university ofnew york, considered the sea hunters in lieu of a ph. D. Thesis andawarded cussler a doctor of letters degree in may, 1997. It was thefirst time since the college was founded in 1874 that such a degreewas bestowed. Cussler is an internationally recognized authority on shipwrecksand the founder of the national underwater and marine agency,(numa) a 501c3 non-profit organization (named after the fictionalfederal agency in his novels) that dedicates itself to preservingamerican maritime and naval history. He and his crew of marineexperts and numa volunteers have discovered more than 60historically significant underwater wreck sites including the firstsubmarine to sink a ship in battle, the confederacy's hunley, andits victim, the union's housatonic; the u-20, the u-boat that sankthe lusitania; the cumberland, which was sunk by the famousironclad, merrimack; the renowned confederate raider florida; thenavy airship, akron, the republic of texas navy warship, zavala,found under a parking lot in galveston, and the carpathia, whichsank almost six years to-the-day after plucking titanic's survivorsfrom the sea. In september, 1998, numa - which turns over all artifacts tostate and federal authorities, or donates them to museums anduniversities - launched its own web site for those wishing moreinformation about maritime history or wishing to make donations tothe organization. In addition to being the chairman of numa, cussler is also afellow in both the explorers club of new york and the royalgeographic society in london. - from Amzon