Trevanian Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Dr. Rodney Whitaker (1925) better known by his most notorious pen name Trevanian is an American spy novelist. He has also published as Nicholas Seare and Benat Le Cagat.After serving in the Korean War, Whitaker completed his MA and PhD in Communications. Formerly a film professor at the University of Texas at Austin, he now resides in the Basque lands of Spain, the setting of his novels "Shibumi" and "The Summer of Katya."
He has written many best-sellers, one of which The Eiger Sanction was made into a 1975 movie staring Clint Eastwood. Trevanian described the movie as "vapid" in a footnote in Shibumi. Interestingly, he requested (and received) a screenwriting credit as Rod Whitaker. The balance of the script was written by Warren Murphy, the mystery author perhaps best known for co-writing the Destroyer series of men's action novels, also about a different sarcastic assassin.
Trevanian kept his true identity unknown for many years, and refused to grant interviews. It was often rumored that he was actually Robert Ludlum using a pen name. However, he wrote at length about his fiction career and writing methods in an article for Publisher's Weekly, while promoting his comeback novel, "Incident At Twenty-Mile." This is the one of only two substantial sources of biographical information for the reclusive author, the other being his entry in Contemporary Authors.