Richard Sapir

{{Short description|American novelist (1936–1987)}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Richard Sapir

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| birth_date = {{birth date|1936|7|27}}

| birth_place = New York City, New York, United States

| death_date = {{death date and age|1987|1|27|1936|7|27}}

| death_place = New Hampshire, United States

| occupation = Writer

| nationality = American

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| notableworks = The Destroyer

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Richard Ben Sapir ({{IPAc-en|s|ə|ˈ|p|ɪər}}; July 27, 1936 – January 27, 1987) was an American author, best known for The Destroyer series of novels that he co-created with Warren Murphy.Richard Sapir, & Warren Murphy (1985). Remo The Adventure Begins, New York, NY: Signet.M. C. Murphy (1995). The Destroyer # 100 Last Rites, Ontario, Canada: Worldwide Library.Richard Sapir, & Warren Murphy (1981). The Destroyer # 44 Balance of Power, New York, NY: Pinnacle Books.[http://ebooks.palm.com/author/detail/1111 Author Biography] viewed June 8, 2006.Warren Murphy biography appended to body of work agreement (June 30, 2000) [http://sec.edgar-online.com/2000/06/30/17/0000932214-00-000120/Section28.asp Sec.edgar-online.com][http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/sapir_richard_ben Sf-encyclopedia.com]

The first Destroyer was written in 1963, while Sapir worked as a city hall reporter in Jersey City and Murphy served as secretary to the city's mayor. Ahead of its time with a plot centered upon a brash young westerner trained in the martial arts by a master assassin from North Korea, they failed to get it published because, according to Murphy, none of them knew anything about publishing. But Sapir's father was a dentist, and one of his patients was a secretary at Pinnacle Books, which agreed to show the manuscript to a Pinnacle editor.[https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/18/books/warren-murphy-writer-and-creator-of-remo-williams-dies-at-82.html Warren Murphy, Writer and Creator of Remo Williams, Dies at 81] The novel was eventually published in June 1971, spawning a highly successful adventure series with over 30 million copies in print by the late 1990s.

Prior to co-creating The Destroyer, Sapir worked as an editor and in public relations. In addition to The Destroyer series, Sapir wrote five novels: Bressio (1975), The Far Arena (1978), The Body (1983), Spies (1984), and Quest (1987), a modern-day search for the Holy Grail. The Body, which was made into a movie in 2001, is about a Jewish archaeologist who finds a skeleton underneath an Arab shopkeeper's basement that might be the body of Jesus and the American Jesuit priest who is sent by the Vatican to investigate.

Richard Sapir was a graduate of Columbia University and lived with his wife in New Hampshire until his death in 1987 from a heart attack.