young age, Clancy was an avid reader of naval history and sea exploration. However, he was later rejected from serving in the military because of his poor eyesight. Since graduating from high school and eventually earning an English major, he always wanted to write a novel. He eventually worked as an insurance agent for a small business owned by his then-wife's family. In his spare time, Clancy started working on The Hunt for Red October on November 11, 1982, and finished it four months later on February 23, 1983. Contrary to popular belief that Clancy had access to top-secret intelligence in researching for the novel, he consulted technical manuals, discussions with former submariners and books like Norman Polmar’s Guide to the Soviet Navy and Combat Fleets of the World in order to maintain accuracy in describing Soviet submarines. He then submitted the first draft of the novel to the Naval Institute Press, where he previously wrote an article on the MX missile for their magazine Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute. Three weeks later, the publication company returned his manuscript, along with a request to cut about a hundred pages’ worth of numerous technical details. After fixing his work, Clancy then sold The Hunt for Red October to the Naval Institute Press for a modest sum of $5,000. Having recently decided to publish fiction, the publication company made Clancy's work their first published novel. Editor Deborah Grosvenor later recalled convincing the publishers: “I think we have a potential best-seller here, and if we don’t grab this thing, somebody else would." She believed Clancy had an "innate storytelling ability, and his characters had this very witty dialogue". Theories about source of the story The 2005 book The Last Sentry: Valery Sablin and the True Hunt for Red October by Gregory D Young and Nate Braden suggests that the novel was based on the Soviet frigate Storozhevoy mutiny in 1975. The 2020 Muse Entertainment documentary The Real Hunt for Red October claims that the story of Red October is based on the loss of Soviet submarine K-129, which was lost in 1968, and recovered by 1974's Project Azorian. Reception Critical The book received critical acclaim, especially from the American government. U.S. President Ronald Reagan had pronounced the book, which was given to him as a Christmas gift, as “the perfect yarn” and “unputdownable”; his endorsement eventually boosted the novel's sales and solidified