From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Robert Ludlum (May 25, 1927 – March 12, 2001) was an American author of 11 thriller novels. The number of his books in print is estimated between 290–500 million copies. They have been published in 33 languages and 40 countries. Ludlum also published books under the pseudonyms Jonathan Ryder and Michael Shepherd. Description above from the Wikipedia article Robert Ludlum, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia