Cline, Edward 1946–

PERSONAL: Born October 22, 1946, in Pittsburgh, PA. Ethnicity: "White." Education: Attended South Texas Junior College, 1966–67. Politics: "Radical for Capitalism."

ADDRESSES: Home—P.O. Box 25, Yorktown, VA 23690. E-mail—skeen66hotmail.com; [email protected].

CAREER: Writer, 1972–. Worked in factories, construction, airline and publishing communications, inventory management, banking, computer sales, insurance, and as a computer screen designer, book editor, copyeditor, and proofreader. Military service: U.S. Air Force, 1964–65.

WRITINGS:

A Layman's Guide to Understanding OPEC and the Fuel Crisis, Lion Enterprises, 1979.

First Prize (detective novel), Mysterious Press (New York, NY), 1988.

Whisper the Guns (suspense novel), Atlantean Press (Milpitas, CA), 1992.

The Wizards of Disambiguation: A Critique of Detective Genre Literary Criticism, Atlantean Press (Milpitas, CA), 1993.

Contributor to books, including introduction to The Man Who Laughs, by Victor Hugo, Atlantean Press (Milpitas, CA), 1991, an article on John Locke for Western Civilization II (a textbook), McGraw-Hill, and an entry on censorship for Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science. Contributor of articles, editorials, and reviews to periodicals, including Capitalism (online magazine), Wall Street Journal, Mystery Readers Journal, Intellectual Activist, Armchair Detective, On Principle, Marine Corps League, Colonial Williamsburg Journal, Journal of Information Ethics, and Reason. Contributing editor, Social Critic, 1996–97.

"SPARROWHAWK" SERIES; NOVELS

Jack Frake, MacAdam/Cage (San Francisco, CA), 2002.

Hugh Kenrick, MacAdam/Cage (San Francisco, CA), 2004.

Caxton, MacAdam/Cage (San Francisco, CA), 2004.

Empire, MacAdam/Cage (San Francisco, CA), 2005.

Revolution, MacAdam/Cage (San Francisco, CA), 2005.

WORK IN PROGRESS: War, final volume in the "Sparrowhawk" series, publication by MacAdam/Cage (San Francisco, CA) expected in 2006, along with a companion book to the series, containing articles by Cline and others, expected in 2007.

SIDELIGHTS: Edward Cline once told CA: "I regard myself as primarily a novelist, of the school Ayn Rand has defined as 'Romantic Realism.' My interest in drama and conflict was aroused when I saw The Time Machine in 1960. While not strictly a romantic film, it presented value conflicts and imagination as I'd never seen them before, but its chief value to me was its scope and presentation of a comprehensive view of man and history. North by Northwest, which I saw the same year, is a film I enjoyed enormously and still enjoy almost without qualification. A little romanticism will go a long way."

Later Cline added: "Many years ago I wrote for CA that we live in an 'esthetic desert created by the salinity of subjectivism and the fungus of naturalism.' I do not retract that estimate now; I might even add that the desert before us is parched and lifeless, except for some sparse, oddly shaped, nasty-looking flora, uninviting and probably poisonous.

"However, I have been personally encouraged by seeing published my magnum opus, the 'Sparrowhawk' novels set in England and Virginia in the decades preceding the American Revolution. This series, to be completed with the sixth title, War, represents thirteen years of research and writing. It was a project undertaken to dramatize the political and philosophical causes of the Revolution, something I believe no other American writer has ever attempted. It meant recreating the British-American culture and politics of the period to better dramatize those causes. It meant bringing ideas to life in the characters of several heroes, chiefly in two of them—Jack Frake and Hugh Kenrick. It meant bucking the mantras of political correctness and multiculturalism. It means writing against hope that the series would ever see the light of day.

"Long ago in CA I also commented that 'I've always had confidence in the value and marketability of my novels.' About the 'Sparrowhawk' series, I have been proven right in this respect on a scale I could never have permitted myself to imagine. While individual titles in the series are beginning to appear in college and high school literature courses—a phenomenon many writers never live long enough to witness—and while a number of people with doctorates have expressed interest in using the titles in their history and political science courses, it is the response of the American reading public to the series that continues to earn my greatest appreciation.

"It is the reading public that is discovering the series, not the critical establishment, which has largely ignored it. Parents have procured whole sets of the series for their children's school libraries, while many parents have bought them for inclusion in home-schooling programs for their children. The entire series is to be catalogued and shelved in the Jefferson Library at Monticello, and it even has a measurable British readership. In sum, it is becoming a 'classic' before our literati have had a chance to so dub it. The success of the series underscores the gulf that exists between the American public and its purported intellectual defenders and literary guides.

"Finally, long ago in CA I quoted novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand, who wrote in 1969 in 'What Is Romanticism?' that, 'when reason and philosophy are reborn, literature will be the first phoenix to rise out of today's ashes.' I take the liberty to add to that sentence '… armed with a code of rational values, aware of its own nature, confident of the supreme importance of its mission, Romanticism will have come of age.' I hope I may be forgiven the conceit, but perhaps the 'Sparrowhawk' series will prove to be a phoenix in its own right."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2001, review of Jack Frake, p. 1381.

Publishers Weekly, July 6, 1992, review of Whisper the Guns, p. 40; November 12, 2001, review of Jack Frake, p. 38; October 28, 2002, review of Hugh Kenrick, p. 51; November 15, 2004, review of Empire, p. 41.