Nelson Richard DeMille's Net Worth as of 2024
$25 Million

Nelson Richard DeMille was born on 23rd August 1943, in Jamaica, Queens, New York City USA, and is a novelist who, under the pseudonyms of Kurt Ladner, Jack Cannon and Brad Matthews, is the author of thrillers and spy novels, during a writing career which began over 40 years ago.

How much is the net worth of Nelson DeMille? It has been reported by authoritative sources that the overall size of his wealth is as much as $25 million, as of the data presented in the middle of 2017. Novel writing is the main source of DeMille fortune, and popularity.

Nelson DeMille Net Worth $25 Million

To begin with, the boy and his parents moved to Long Island, where DeMille still lives today and where he has located the action of several of his novels, including “Word of Honour” (1985), “The Gold Coast” (1990), “Plum Island” (1997) and “Night Fall” (2004). He was educated at the local high school, then studied three years at Hofstra University before being called to the flags. After training at a military school, he was commissioned a lieutenant, and spent three years in the army (1966-1969), including one in Vietnam, being honoured with the Air Medal, the Bronze Star and the Cross of Vietnamese Valour. At the end of his service, he returned to the university where he obtained his degree in Political Science and History. From 1970 to 1976, he worked in various fields, including insurance investigator.

In 1974, Nelson DeMille decided to become a writer. He was an admirer of Agatha Christie, Conan Doyle, Hemingway, Somerset Maugham and Steinbeck, and his ambition was to write the greatest American war novel of his time. Meanwhile, he began with a series of police novels featuring a New York police investigator and published directly in paperbacks, including “The Sniper” (1974), “The Hammer of God” (1974) and “The Agent of Death” (1975). In 1976 he decided to devote himself to writing full-time, and his breakthrough came as early as 1978, with “By the Rivers of Babylon” – well received by critics, the novel was included in the selection of the very popular Book of the Month Club. Overall, the author has written more than 20 novels (including one in collaboration with his childhood friend Thomas Block), at relatively regular intervals (about two years elapses between the conception of a book and its publication) alternating thrillers, detective novels, and novels about espionage. All his books have been bookstore successes, and several have appeared at the top of the New York Times’ weekly ranking. In total, his sales of books have brought more than $30 million worldwide. His novels have been translated into 21 languages and published in 30 countries.

From his first work, Nelson DeMille was inspired by the news – “By the Rivers of Babylon” (1978) tells how a group of Israelis find themselves besieged by a gang of Palestinian terrorists in the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon, is indeed in the context of the emergence of Palestinian terrorism. Since then, the news has often served as a pretext for the plot of his books: terrorism Middle East – “The Lion’s Game” (2000), Irish nationalism – Cathedral (1981), cold war waning – “The Talbot Odyssey” (1984), “The Charm School” (1988), explosion of TWA Flight 800 – “Night Fall” (2004). The rights of the majority of Nelson DeMille novels have been purchased by Hollywood, but only three film adaptations have been made, one being “Word of Honour” with which DeMille really collaborated. “The General’s Daughter” was released in 1999 was directed by Simon West starring John Travolta and Madeleine Stowe, and the film entitled “Time Limit” (2003) was based on the book “Word of Honour”, directed by Robert Markowitz and starring Don Johnson and Jeanne Tripplehorn. “Mayday” (2005) was directed by T.J. Scott with Aidan Quinn and Kelly Hu.

Finally, in the personal life of the novelist, Nelson DeMille has married three times, firstly to Ellen Wasserman (1971-87), then to Virginia Sindel Witte (1988-2004), and is now married to Sandy Dillingham – they have three children.