View source for The Day of the Jackal

{{Short description|1971 thriller novel by Frederick Forsyth}}
{{About||the 1973 film adaptation of the novel|The Day of the Jackal (film)|the 2024 TV adaptation|The Day of the Jackal (TV series)}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{infobox book |
| name          = The Day of the Jackal
| title_orig    =
| translator    =
| image         = File:FrederickForsyth_TheDayOfTheJackal.jpg
| caption       = 1971 UK 1st Edition dustjacket (spine & front)
| author        = [[Frederick Forsyth]]
| illustrator   =
| cover_artist  =
| country       = United Kingdom
| language      = English
| series        =
| genre         = [[Spy novel|Spy]], [[Thriller (genre)|Thriller]], Historical novel
| publisher     = [[Hutchinson & Co]] (UK)<br />[[Viking Press]] (US)
| release_date  = 7 June 1971 (UK)<br /> 6 August 1971 (US)
| media_type    = Print (hardback & paperback)
| pages         = 358 (first edition, UK)<br />380 (first edition, US)
| isbn          = 0-09-107390-1
| isbn_note     = (first edition, hardback)
| dewey         = 823/.9/14
| congress      = PZ4.F7349 Day3 PR6056.O699
| oclc          = 213704
| preceded_by   =
| followed_by   =
}}

'''''The Day of the Jackal''''' is a 1971 [[political thriller]] novel by English author [[Frederick Forsyth]] about a [[professional assassin]] who is contracted by the [[Organisation armée secrète|OAS]], a French [[dissident]] [[paramilitary]] organisation, to kill [[Charles de Gaulle]], the [[President of France|president]] of [[France]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.fantasticfiction.com/f/frederick-forsyth/day-of-jackal.htm|title=Fantastic Fiction.com The Day of the Jackal}}</ref>

The novel received admiring reviews and praise when first published in 1971, and it received a 1972 Best Novel [[Edgar Award]] from the [[Mystery Writers of America]]. The novel remains popular, and in 2003 it was listed on the [[BBC]]'s survey [[The Big Read]].<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top200.shtml "BBC – The Big Read"]. BBC. April 2003, Retrieved 31 October 2012</ref>

The novel begins as [[historical fiction]]; as the OAS did exist and conspire to commit the act, which the book opens with, giving an accurate depiction of the [[Operation Charlotte Corday|attempt to assassinate General de Gaulle]] by [[Jean Bastien-Thiry|Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry]] on 22 August 1962. The subsequent plot is fiction.

==Plot==

===Part One: Anatomy of a Plot===
The book begins in 1962 with the (historical) failed attempt on [[de Gaulle]]'s life plotted by, among others, [[Lieutenant-Colonel]] Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry in the [[Paris]] [[suburb]] of [[Petit-Clamart]]. Following the arrest of Bastien-Thiry and various other conspirators, the [[Law enforcement in France|French security forces]] wage a short but extremely vicious underground war with the terrorists of the [[Organisation de l'armée secrète|OAS]], a [[militant]] [[Right-wing politics|right-wing]] group who believe de Gaulle to be a [[Treason|traitor]] to France after the [[1962 French Évian Accords referendum|Évian Accords]] granted [[Algeria]] her [[Independence Day (Algeria)|independence]].

The French [[secret service]] [[SDECE]], particularly its [[covert operation]]s directorate (the [[Action Service]]), is remarkably effective in infiltrating the [[Terrorism|terrorist]] organisation with ''their'' own informants, allowing them to seize and interrogate [[Antoine Argoud]], the OAS operation commander. The failure of the Petit-Clamart assassination, and a subsequent betrayal of the next attempt on de Gaulle's life at the [[École Militaire]], compounded by Bastien-Thiry's eventual [[execution by firing squad]], likewise demoralise the antagonists.

Argoud's deputy, Lt-Col Marc Rodin, carefully examines what few options they have remaining and establishes that the only way to succeed in killing de Gaulle is to hire a professional mercenary from outside the organisation, who is completely unknown to both the French government and the OAS itself. After 3 months of extensive inquiries, he contacts an unnamed British hitman, who meets with Rodin and his two principal deputies in [[Vienna]], and agrees to assassinate de Gaulle in exchange for a total of US$500,000 (roughly US${{Inflation|US|0.5|1963|r=1}}&nbsp;million in {{Inflation/year|US}} currency).{{Inflation-fn|US}} The killer further requires that half of this be paid in advance and the rest on completion. Lastly, the hired assassin chooses a code name, "[[Jackal (The Day of the Jackal)|The Jackal]]" which Rodin agrees to. The triumvirate of OAS personnel then take up residency on the top floor of a hotel in [[Rome]] guarded by a group of ex-[[legionnaires]] to avoid the risk of being captured like Argoud and subsequently revealing the assassination plot under interrogation, and also to minimise the possibility of being executed.

The remainder of this part describes the Jackal's exhaustive preparations for the forthcoming project. He first acquires a legitimate British passport under a fake name, "Alexander Duggan", which he intends to use for most of his operation. He then steals the passports of two foreign tourists visiting London who superficially resemble him for use as contingency identities. Using Duggan's identity, he later travels to [[Brussels]], where he commissions a master gunsmith to build him a special [[Suppressor|suppressed]] [[sniper rifle]] of extreme slimness with a small supply of [[Mercury (element)|mercury]]-tipped [[High-explosive incendiary/armor-piercing ammunition|explosive bullets]]. He also acquires a set of forged [[Identity card (France)|French identity papers]] from a professional forger. The latter makes the mistake of attempting to [[blackmail]] him, for which the Jackal kills him and locks his body in a large trunk where he determines it will not be found for a considerable time (long enough that the Jackal would not be considered a suspect). After exhaustively researching a series of books and articles by and about de Gaulle, the Jackal travels to Paris to [[Reconnaissance|reconnoitre]] the most favourable spot and the best possible day for the assassination.

Following a series of armed robberies in France, the OAS is able to deposit the first half of the Jackal's fee in his [[Swiss bank]] [[Bank account|account]]. Meanwhile, the French authorities, suspicious about Rodin and his subordinates being quarantined in the hotel for weeks, compose and dispatch a fake letter that lures Viktor Kowalski, one of Rodin's bodyguards (and a hulking giant) to France, where he is caught and tortured to reveal what he knows. Interpreting his incoherent ramblings, the secret service is able to decipher the bare bones of Rodin's plot, and the name "Jackal", but know nothing of the assassin himself. When informed of the plan, de Gaulle (who in reality was notoriously careless of his personal security){{citation needed|date=December 2024}} refuses to cancel any public appearances, modify his normal routines, or even allow any kind of public inquiry, whatsoever, into the assassin's whereabouts to be made: any investigation, he orders, must be done in absolute secrecy.

[[Roger Frey]], the French [[Minister of the Interior (France)|Minister of the Interior]], organises a conference of the heads of the French security authorities. Because Rodin and his men are in a foreign hotel under heavy guard, kidnapping them for interrogation will be impossible (unless it is achieved through a commando-style operation), nor can they be assassinated. The rest of the meeting is at a loss to suggest how to proceed, until a [[Police commissioner|Commissioner]] of the [[Central Directorate of the Judicial Police|Police Judiciaire]] reasons that their first and most essential objective is to establish the Jackal's ''true'' identity, which is something that he insists is "pure [[detective]] work". When Frey asks him to suggest the best detective in France, he volunteers his own deputy commissioner: Claude Lebel.

===Part Two: Anatomy of a Manhunt===
Granted special emergency powers to conduct his investigation, Lebel does everything possible to uncover the Jackal's identity. He first calls upon his [[old boy network]] of foreign intelligence and police contacts to inquire if they have any records of a top-class political assassin. Most of the inquiries are fruitless, but in the [[United Kingdom]], the matter is eventually passed on to the [[Special Branch (Metropolitan Police)|Special Branch]] of [[Scotland Yard]], and another veteran detective, [[Superintendent (police)|Superintendent]] Bryn Thomas.

A routine search through Special Branch's records turns up nothing. However, one of Thomas's subordinates suggests that if the assassin were an Englishman, but primarily operated abroad, he would most probably come to the attention of the [[Secret Intelligence Service]]. Thomas makes an informal inquiry with a friend of his on the SIS's staff, who mentions hearing a rumour from an officer stationed in the [[Dominican Republic]] at the time of [[Rafael Trujillo|President Trujillo]]'s assassination. The rumour states that a hired assassin stopped Trujillo's car with a rifle shot, allowing a gang of [[Partisan (military)|partisans]] to finish him off. Additionally, Thomas also learns that the assassin was an Englishman, whom he identifies as a man named 'Charles Calthrop'.

Thomas is then surprised when he receives a summons in person to report to the [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] (unnamed, but most probably intended to represent [[Harold Macmillan]]),{{citation needed|date=December 2024}} who informs him that word of his inquiries has reached higher circles in the [[Government of the United Kingdom|British government]]. Despite the general enmity felt by much of the government against France and, more precisely, de Gaulle, the Prime Minister informs Thomas that de Gaulle is his friend, and that the assassin ''must'' be identified and stopped, with limitless resources, manpower and expenses at Thomas' disposal. He is handed a commission similar to Lebel's, with temporary powers allowing him to override almost any other authority in the land. Investigating the name of "Charles Calthrop", Thomas finds a match to a man living in London, said to be on holiday. While Thomas confirms that this individual ''was'' indeed in the Dominican Republic at the time of Trujillo's death, he does not believe it justifies informing Lebel, until one of his junior detectives realises that the first three letters of his first name and surname (i.e. "CHA-rles CAL-throp") forms "''Chacal''", the French word for "Jackal".

Unknown to any member of the council in France, there is an OAS [[Mole (espionage)|mole]] among them: the mistress of an arrogant [[French Air Force|Air Force]] [[colonel]] attached to de Gaulle's staff. Through [[pillow talk]], the [[Officer (armed forces)|officer]] unwittingly feeds her a constant stream of information as to Lebel's progress. The assassin enters France through Italy, driving a rented [[Alfa Romeo]] [[sports car]] with his disassembled weapon [[soldered]] to the [[chassis]]. Although he receives word from the OAS agent that the French are on the lookout for him, he assesses that he will succeed whatever happens and decides to take the risk. In London, the Special Branch raids Calthrop's flat, finding his [[passport]], and deduce that he must be travelling on a [[Identity theft|fake identity]].  A search for suspicious passport applications reveals one in the name of Duggan.  When they discover that the Jackal may be travelling as Duggan, Lebel and a police force almost apprehend him in the [[south of France]], but owing to his OAS contact, he leaves his hotel early and evades them by only an hour. With the police on the lookout for him, the Jackal seeks refuge in the [[château]] of a woman whom he encountered and seduced at the hotel. A few days later, after [[eavesdropping]] on  his morning phone call, she searches his belongings and finds the component parts of his rifle. He then kills her before she can sound the alarm, and flees after disguising himself as the first of his two emergency identities. Before leaving this region, he disposes of Duggan's belongings in a [[ravine]]. The woman's body is only discovered hours later, allowing the Jackal to board a train for Paris.

===Part Three: Anatomy of a Kill===
Having failed to capture the Jackal at least twice, and with each imminent arrest happening hours after the conference was informed, Lebel becomes suspicious of what the rest of the council label the killer's apparent "good luck", and orders the telephones of all the members to be [[Wiretapping|tapped]], which leads him to discover the leak. The disgraced Air Force officer withdraws from the meeting and subsequently submits his resignation. When Thomas investigates and identifies reports of stolen or missing passports in London in the preceding months, he closes in on the Jackal's remaining secondary identities. Meanwhile, the Jackal slips into a small hotel upon arriving in Paris (narrowly evading a police checkpoint as he does), disposes of his first emergency identity, and masquerades as the second stolen passport's owner.

During a council meeting on 22 August 1963, Lebel deduces that the killer has decided to target de Gaulle three days later on 25 August, the anniversary of the [[liberation of Paris]] during [[World War II]]. It is, he realises, the one day of the year when de Gaulle can definitely be counted on to be in Paris and make a public appearance. Despite his initial intentions to keep the investigation a confidential affair, Charles de Gaulle ultimately authorises Lebel to release the Jackal's most updated picture and name to the newspapers, identifying him as a wanted man after he has killed the woman. Believing the inquiry to be over, Roger Frey similarly orchestrates a massive, citywide manhunt for the foreigner now that he can be publicly reported as a murderer. He dismisses Lebel with hearty congratulations – but the killer eludes them yet again: slipping into a [[gay bar]] while posing as his new contingency identity, he gets himself picked up by a local man and taken to his flat, where he kills him after a news reporter mentions that "Martin Schulberg" (whose identity the Englishman is using) is wanted for murder, and waits out the remaining days.

On the 24th, Roger Frey summons Lebel yet again and tells him that the Jackal still cannot be found. The detective listens to the details of Charles de Gaulle's schedule and security arrangements, but can suggest nothing more helpful than that everyone "should keep their eyes open", much to the Interior Minister's dismay. On the 25th itself, the Jackal, pretending to be a one-legged French [[Veteran|war veteran]], penetrates the security checkpoints carrying his custom gun concealed in the sections of a [[crutch]]. He enters an apartment building overlooking the [[Boulevard du Montparnasse|Place du 18 Juin 1940]] (in front of the soon-to-be-demolished façade of the [[Gare Montparnasse]]), where de Gaulle is presenting [[medal]]s to a small group of [[French Resistance|Resistance]] veterans. As the ceremony begins, Lebel is walking around the street, questioning and re-questioning every police checkpoint. When he hears from one [[Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité|CRS]] guard about a one-legged veteran with a crutch, he realises what the Jackal's plan is and rushes into the apartment building, calling for the patrol to follow him.

Having sneaked into a suitable apartment to shoot from, the Jackal prepares his weapon and takes aim at de Gaulle's head, but his first shot misses by a fraction of an inch when the President unexpectedly leans forward to [[Cheek kissing#Western Europe|kiss the cheeks]] of the veteran he is honouring. Outside the apartment, Lebel and the CRS man arrive on the top floor in time to hear the sound of the first, silenced shot. The guard shoots off the door lock and bursts in as the Jackal is reloading: the Englishman turns and fires, killing the guard with a shot to the chest. At this point, the detective and the killer, having developed grudging respect for each other during the pursuit, share a brief glance of recognition. The Jackal scrambles to load his third and last bullet while the unarmed Lebel snatches up the dead policeman's [[MAT-49|submachine-gun]]: Lebel is faster and shoots the Jackal with half a magazine-load of [[9mm]] bullets, killing him.

===Epilogue===
In London, the Special Branch are searching Calthrop's apartment when the real Charles Calthrop storms in and demands to know what they are doing. Once it is established that Calthrop truly has been on holiday in Scotland and is totally separate from the killer, the British are left to wonder "if the Jackal wasn't Calthrop, then ''who the hell was he''?"

The Jackal is buried in an unmarked grave in a Paris cemetery, officially recorded as "an unknown foreign tourist, killed in a car accident." Aside from a priest, a policeman, registrar and grave-diggers, the only other person attending the burial is Inspector Claude Lebel, who then leaves the cemetery to return home.

== Characters ==

=== French ===

* Claude Lebel - the detective
* Roger Frey - Minister of the Interior, France
* General Charles de Gaulle - the main target and President of France
* Yvonne de Gaulle - the President's wife
* Henri d'Jouder - the President's bodyguard
* Police Judicaire Commissioner 
* Colonel Rolland - head of the Action Service
* Colonel Saint-Claire - unknowingly an antagonist whose mistress feeds information to the Jackal regarding Lebel's progress
* General Guibaud - 
* Head of the DST
* Head of the RG
* Head of the Prefecture of Police
* Alexander Sanguinetti - Head of the
* Jules Bernard - a gay man who the Jackal stays with and kills to avoid detection when in France
* Pierre Valremy - CRS guard who is killed by the Jackal  
* Francis Marroux - de Gaulle's personal driver

=== OAS ===

* LTC Jean-Marie - one of the minor antagonists and a member of the OAS
* LTC Marc Rodin - replacement of Antoine Argoud
* Andre - treasurer of the OAS
* Renee 
* Colonel Argoud - commander of OAS operations who is captured and questioned
* Corporal Viktor Kowalski - Rodin's bodyguard, who exposes the general gist of the plot to kill de Gaulle

=== British ===

* Prime Minister
* Superintendent Bryn Thomas
* Charles Calthrop - various individuals with this name raise suspicion after the British Special Branch starts investigating
* The Jackal - the antagonist
* Special Branch
* Alexander Duggan - an infant killed in a road accident who was born at a date close to the Jackal's birthday. His identity is used by the assassin until the Jackal realises that he would be exposed when escaping the chateau.

=== South African ===

*

=== American ===

* Martin Schulberg - whose identity is stolen by the Jackal
* Head of the FBI

=== Dutch ===

=== Belgium ===

* Paul Goossens, who creates the Jackal's sniper rifle
* Unnamed forger, who attempts to blackmail the Jackal

=== Other nations ===

* Per Jensen - a pastor who is a victim of the Jackal, when his passport is stolen after the Englishman realises that they look similar
* Rafale Trujillo - a president who was fatally shot by an Englishman

==Origins==
[[File:The Biafra Story.jpg|thumb|The cover of ''The Biafra Story'']]

Over the three years immediately prior to his writing ''The Day of the Jackal'', Forsyth spent most of his time in West Africa covering the [[Biafra|Biafran war]], initially for the [[BBC]] in 1967 and subsequently for another eighteen months as a freelance journalist in 1968–1969. Upon his return to Britain his first book, the non-fiction ''The Biafra Story: The Making of an African Legend'' about that brutal civil war during which Nigeria fought to prevent the secession of its eastern province, was published as a paperback by [[Penguin Books]] in late 1969.<ref>{{cite magazine |author=Yishau, Olukorede |url=http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/news/28063-frederick-forsyth%E2%80%99s-biafran-story.html |title=Frederick Forsyth's Biafran Story |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120501155412/http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/news/28063-frederick-forsyth%E2%80%99s-biafran-story.html |archive-date=1 May 2012 |magazine=The Nation |place=Lagos, Nigeria |date=30 November 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Aspinall, Terry |url=http://www.mercenary-wars.net/biafra/ |title=Soldiers of Fortune Mercenary Wars: Biafra&nbsp;1966 |website=Mercenary-Wars.net |year=2010 |access-date=30 April 2013 |archive-date=12 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140112190931/http://www.mercenary-wars.net/biafra/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> To Forsyth's disappointment, however, the book sold very few copies and so with the arrival of the 1970s the then 31&nbsp;year-old freelance journalist, international adventurer, and onetime youngest (at 19) fighter pilot in the [[RAF]] found himself both out of work and "flat broke". To solve his financial problems he thus decided to try his hand at fiction by writing a political thriller as a "one-off" project to "clear his debts".<ref>{{cite book |author=Forsyth, Frederick |chapter=A Rather Undeserving Scribe (Author's Note) |title=The Day of the Jackal |edition=New American Library}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=Vembu, Venkatesan |url=http://www.dnaindia.com/opinion/1416804/interview-i-m-mercenary-i-wrote-day-of-the-jackal-for-money-frederick-forsyth |quote=I'm mercenary: I wrote Day of the Jackal for money. |title=Interview with Frederick Forsyth |website=DNAIndia.com |date=31 July 2010}}</ref> Unlike most novelists, however, Forsyth would employ the same type of research techniques that he had used as an investigative reporter to bring a sense of increased reality to his work of fiction, a story which he first began to consider writing in 1962–1963 while posted to Paris as a young Reuters foreign correspondent.<ref name=penguin>{{cite web |url=http://www.penguinreaders.com/pdf/downloads/pr/teachers-notes/9781405879491.pdf |title=The Day of the Jackal: Teacher's Notes Level&nbsp;4 |series=Penguin Readers Teacher Support Programme |publisher=Penguin Books}}</ref>

When Forsyth arrived in 1962, French president [[Charles de Gaulle]] had most recently granted independence to [[Algeria]] to end the eight-year [[Algerian War]], a highly controversial act that had incurred the wrath of the anti-[[decolonisation]] paramilitary group ''[[Organisation Armée Secrète]]'' (OAS) which then vowed to assassinate him. Forsyth befriended several of the President's bodyguards and personally reported from the scene of the failed August&nbsp;1962 [[Petit-Clamart attack|assassination attempt]] along the Avenue de la Libération during which de&nbsp;Gaulle and his wife narrowly escaped death in a fusillade of gunfire in the roadside ambush, the most serious of six overall attempts the OAS would make on his life.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0004/15/lklw.00.html |type=Transcript |series=Larry King Live Weekend |title=Interview with Frederick Forsyth |date=15 April 2000 |publisher=[[CNN]] |access-date=30 April 2013 |archive-date=4 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130404061259/http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0004/15/lklw.00.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Forsyth incorporated an account of that real-life event to open his new novel throughout which he also employed many other aspects and details about France, its politics, the OAS, and international law enforcement that he had learned during his career as an investigative journalist.<ref>{{cite news |author=Cumming, Charles |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/jun/03/day-jackal-frederick-forsyth |title=The Day of the Jackal: The hit we nearly missed |newspaper=The Guardian |date=3 June 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/citroen-helps-de-gaulle-survive-assassination-attempt |title=Citroen helps de Gaulle survive assassination attempt |series=This Day in History |date=22 August 1962 |publisher=The History Channel}}</ref> Forsyth noted that virtually all OAS members and sympathizers were known to, and under surveillance by, French authorities—a key factor in the failure of their assassination attempts. In his 2015 memoir ''The Outsider'', Forsyth wrote that during his time in France he briefly considered that the OAS might assassinate de&nbsp;Gaulle if they hired a man or men who were completely unknown to French authorities – an idea he would later expand upon in ''Jackal''.<ref>{{cite book |author=Forsyth, Frederick |year=2015 |title=The Outsider: My life in intrigue |place=New York |publisher=Putnam}}</ref>

== Publishing history ==
[[File:The Day of the Jackal 1971 UK First Edition spine.jpg|thumb|45px|right|UK first edition spine]]
Although Forsyth wrote ''The Day of the Jackal'' in 35 days in January and February 1970, it remained unpublished for almost a year and a half thereafter as he sought a publisher willing to accept his unsolicited 140,000-word manuscript. Four publishing houses rejected it between February and September because their editors believed a fictional account of the OAS hiring a British assassin in 1963 to kill Charles de Gaulle would not be commercially successful, given the fact that he had never been shot and, when the book was written, de Gaulle was in fact still alive and retired from public life.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gilbert |first=Harriet |date=October 2003 |title=Federick Forsyth – Day of the Jackal |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02r7l2s |access-date=17 May 2024 |website=British Broadcasting Service}}</ref>

The editors told Forsyth that they felt that these well-known facts essentially abrogated the suspense of his fictional assassination plot against de Gaulle as readers would already know it would not and could not possibly have been successful.<ref name=Anderson>Anderson, Hephzibah (31 July 2011). [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-31/forsyth-s-shadowy-jackal-celebrates-40-years-of-assassination-interview.html "Forsyth's Shadowy Jackal Celebrates 40 Years of Assassination: Interview"] Bloomberg News.</ref> (De Gaulle subsequently [[Charles DeGaulle#Death|died]] of natural causes at his country home in [[Colombey-les-Deux-Églises]] in November 1970 following a peaceful retirement.)<ref>"France Mourns de Gaulle: World Leaders to Attend a Service at Notre Dame". ''The New York Times'', 11 November 1970. p. 1</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://beyondthirtynine.com/the-day-of-the-jackal-45-years-ago/ | title=The Day of the Jackal, 45 Years Ago | first=Angelico | last=Paratico | website=Beyond Thirty-Nine | date=24 February 2016 | access-date=2 July 2022 | archive-date=27 February 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170227074123/https://beyondthirtynine.com/the-day-of-the-jackal-45-years-ago/ | url-status=dead }}</ref> Following these rejections, Forsyth took a different strategy and wrote a short summary of the novel to present to publishers, noting that the focus was ''not'' on the plausibility of the assassination itself, but rather on the technical details and manhunt. He persuaded London-based [[Hutchinson & Co.]] to take a chance on publishing his novel; however, they only agreed to a relatively small initial printing of just 8,000 copies for its 358-page red and gold clothbound first edition. Forsyth was signed to a three-book contract: a £500 advance for ''Jackal'', followed by another £6,000 advance for the second and third novels.<ref>Forsyth, 2015</ref> Although the book was not formally reviewed by the press prior to its initial June 1971 UK publication, widespread [[word of mouth]] resulted in brisk advance and post-publication sales leading to repeated additional printings.<ref name=Anderson/><ref name=Brown>Brown, Helen [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/authorinterviews/8524091/Frederick-Forsyth-I-had-expected-women-to-hate-him.-But-no....html "Frederick Forsyth: 'I had expected women to hate him. But no...'"] ''The Daily Telegraph''. 21 May 2011</ref><ref>[https://digitalimageservices.com/TDOTJ_1971_Cover.jpg ''The Day of the Jackal'' Original dustjacket] ("Reprinted before publication") London: Hutchinson & Co. 1971</ref>

The book's unexpected success in Britain soon attracted the attention of [[Viking Press]] in New York which quickly acquired the US publication rights for $365,000 (£100,000)—then a very substantial sum for such a work and especially for that of a first-time author. These fees (the equivalent of ${{Inflation|US|0.365|1971|r=1}}&nbsp;million in {{Inflation/year|US}}) were split equally between Hutchinson and Forsyth, which led the self-described "flat broke" author to observe later that he had "never seen money like it and never thought I would."<ref name=Anderson/><ref name=Brown/> Just two months after its publication in the UK the 380-page clothbound Viking first edition was released in the US at $7.95 and with a distinctive jacket designed by noted American artist [[Paul Bacon (designer)|Paul Bacon]].<ref name=Hulme>Hulme, Emily [http://people.lis.illinois.edu/~unsworth/courses/entc312/s99/search.cgi?title=The+Day+of+the+Jackal "20th Century American Bestsellers: "The Day of the Jackal"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120729121227/http://people.lis.illinois.edu/~unsworth/courses/entc312/s99/search.cgi?title=The+Day+of+the+Jackal |date=29 July 2012 }} University of Illinois</ref><ref>[http://www.audioeditions.com/audio-book-images/l/The-Day-of-the-Jackal-311213.jpg 1971 US First Edition Dustjacket] Paul Bacon, Designer {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304113924/http://www.audioeditions.com/audio-book-images/l/The-Day-of-the-Jackal-311213.jpg |date=4 March 2016 }}</ref>

[[File:Want a Thriller? Here's One.jpg#Licensing|thumb|left|''The New York Times'' review headline]]
The first US edition's launch was considerably aided by two glowing [[The New York Times Book Review|reviews]] in ''The New York Times'' by senior daily book reviewer [[Christopher Lehmann-Haupt]] three days before its release, and by the American mystery writer [[Stanley Ellin|Stanley Bernard Ellin]] the week after.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lehmann-Haupt |first1=Christopher |title=Want a Thriller? Here's One |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/08/03/archives/want-a-thriller-heres-one.html |work=The New York Times |date=3 August 1971 |page=27}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Ellin |first1=Stanley |title=Target: Le Grand Charles |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/08/15/archives/the-day-of-the-jackal-by-frederick-forsyth-380-pp-new-york-the.html |work=The New York Times |date=15 August 1971|page=BR3}}</ref>{{#tag:ref|"Regardless of whether [a] book was written by a new or established author, being positively reviewed [in the ''New York Times''] significantly increased sales; a positive review generated between a 32% and 52% percent increase in demand." Berger, Jonah (The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania), Sorensen, Alan T. (Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford University), Rasmussen, Scott J. (Stanford University) "Positive Effects of Negative Publicity: When Negative Reviews Increase Sales". ''Marketing Science'' (Professional journal), Sept/Oct 2010 (Vol. 29, No. 5), pp. 815–827|group=N}} In mid-October it reached No. 1 on the ''Times'' Best Seller List for fiction and by mid-December 136,000 copies of Viking's US edition were already in print.<ref>"Best Seller List" (Fiction) ''The New York Times'' Review of Books. 17 October 1971, p. 69</ref><ref>''Publishers Weekly''. Weekly issues from 16 August to 20 December 1971</ref> Over two-and-a-half million copies were sold worldwide by 1975.<ref>Burke, Alice and James. "80 Years of Bestsellers, 1895–1975". New York: R. R. Bowker Co., 1976</ref> As in the UK, over forty years later ''The Day of the Jackal'' still remains in print in the US published now by Penguin Books (which acquired Viking in 1975) as a New American Library imprint.<ref>[http://www.us.penguingroup.com/static/pages/publishers/adult/viking.html History of the Viking Press] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140403031459/http://www.us.penguingroup.com/static/pages/publishers/adult/viking.html |date=3 April 2014 }} Viking Press. Penguin.com</ref><ref>[http://www.us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780451239372,00.html?_The_Day_of_the_Jackal_Frederick_Forsyth ''The Day of the Jackal''] Viking Press. Penguin.com, 2013</ref> Hundreds of other print, electronic, and audio editions have been produced around the world since 1971 with many more millions of copies now in print in both English and the thirty other languages into which it has been translated including Spanish, German, French, Russian, Turkish, Czech, Polish, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Finnish, Danish, Hebrew, Latvian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Thai.<ref name=penguin/><ref name=Hulme/>

''The Day of the Jackal'' was published in serial format in 1971 in both the ''[[London Evening Standard]]'' and Israel's oldest daily newspaper, ''[[Ha'aretz]]''.<ref name=Hulme/> Earning Forsyth the 1972 [[Edgar Allan Poe Award]] for Best Novel, in 1973 it was also made into a 143-minute [[The Day of the Jackal (film)|feature film]] directed by [[Fred Zinnemann]]. In 2011 a number of special "40th Anniversary" editions of ''The Day of the Jackal'' were released in the UK, US, and elsewhere to commemorate the four decades of continuous success of the book, the first of [[Frederick Forsyth#Bibliography|18]] more Forsyth novels and collections of his short stories published since the 1971 release of his seminal debut thriller.<ref>[https://www.bloomberg.com/photo/-the-day-of-the-jackal-/89891.html 2011 "40th Anniversary Edition" Cover] [[Random House]] (via Bloomberg)</ref>

== Film adaptations ==
* The film ''[[The Day of the Jackal (film)|The Day of the Jackal]]'' was released in 1973, directed by [[Fred Zinnemann]] and starring [[Edward Fox (actor)|Edward Fox]] as The Jackal, [[Michael Lonsdale]] as Lebel, and [[Derek Jacobi]] as Caron. It follows the novel rather faithfully although it has several cosmetic changes.<ref>The French Security services kidnaps the OSS Bodyguard while he is delivering mail instead of luring him back to France with a false report his daughter is dying; The Jackal goes to Genoa, Italy for his sniper rifle and forged ID Card instead of Belgium; while on the way to hiding out with the French aristocrat woman he has a car accident which almost derails his plans; he kills the woman after she reveals that the Police talked to her and that she recognized the car he was driving was stolen; the French Colonel who unwittingly tips off the Jackal commits suicide instead of resigning.</ref>
* An Indian film in [[Malayalam]] titled ''[[August 1 (film)|August 1]]'' (1988), directed by [[Sibi Malayil]], is loosely based on the novel. It stars [[Mammootty]], [[Captain Raju]] and [[Sukumaran]] in pivotal roles.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20101015085625/http://sify.com/movies/shaji-kailas-starts-mammootty-s-film-news-malayalam-kkmrhsjgaeh.html "Shaji Kailas starts Mammootty`s film"]. [[Sify]]. 12 October 2010.</ref>
* A film titled ''[[The Jackal (1997 film)|The Jackal]]'', directed by [[Michael Caton-Jones]], was released in 1997. The film bears little resemblance to the plot of the novel or the original film, featuring an unnamed assassin ([[Bruce Willis]]) being hired by the [[Russian mafia]] to kill the [[First Lady of the United States]]. Both Zinnemann and Forsyth lobbied to have the film's name changed to disassociate it from Forsyth's novel.

== Television adaptation ==
{{further|The Day of the Jackal (TV series)}}
[[Sky Group|Sky]] and [[Peacock (streaming service)|Peacock]] ordered a [[The Day of the Jackal (TV series)|television series adaptation]] of the novel, produced by [[Carnival Films]] and [[Sky Studios]] with [[Ronan Bennett]] as showrunner and [[Brian Kirk]] as director.<ref>{{cite web|last=Goldbart|first=Max|title='The Day of the Jackal' TV Adaptation Greenlit By Sky & Peacock With 'Top Boy' Showrunner Ronan Bennett Attached|url=https://deadline.com/2022/11/the-day-of-the-jackal-sky-peacock-ronan-bennett-top-boy-1235162216/|website=[[Deadline Hollywood]]|date=3 November 2022|access-date=3 November 2022}}</ref> [[Eddie Redmayne]] plays the Jackal.<ref>{{cite web|last=White|first=Peter|title=Eddie Redmayne To Lead 'The Day of the Jackal' Series For Peacock & Sky|url=https://deadline.com/2023/03/eddie-redmayne-the-day-of-the-jackal-series-peacock-sky-1235305526/|website=Deadline Hollywood|date=21 March 2023}}</ref>

== Influence on later events ==
The method for acquiring a false identity and UK passport detailed in the book is often referred to as the "Day of the Jackal fraud" and remained a well known security loophole in the UK<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3098104.stm |title=Has the Jackal passport scam had its day? |author=Dilley, Ryan |date=15 September 2003 |publisher=[[BBC News]] |access-date=19 November 2011}}</ref> until 2007.<ref>{{cite web|title='Day of Jackal' identity scam ended|url=https://metro.co.uk/2007/03/04/day-of-jackal-identity-scam-ended-130911/|website=Metro|date=4 March 2007|access-date=11 January 2016}}</ref> The New Zealand Member of Parliament [[David Garrett (politician)|David Garrett]] claimed the novel's description of identity theft inspired him to create his own fake passport as a "youthful prank".<ref name="ODT_126578">{{cite news |url=https://www.odt.co.nz/news/politics/126578/act-mp-admits-using-dead-childs-identity |title=Act MP admits using dead child's identity |date=15 September 2010 |agency=[[NZPA]] |work=[[Otago Daily Times]] |access-date=19 November 2011}}</ref> The incident further inflamed a national controversy over the law and order campaigner's criminal history.<ref name="TVNZ_3780452">{{cite news |url=https://www.tvnz.co.nz/close-up/hide-fronts-mp-stole-dead-baby-s-id-3780452 |title=Hide fronts on MP who stole dead baby's ID |date=15 September 2010 |work=[[Television New Zealand]] |access-date=19 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110613215626/https://www.tvnz.co.nz/close-up/hide-fronts-mp-stole-dead-baby-s-id-3780452 |archive-date=13 June 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1975, the Venezuelan terrorist [[Carlos the Jackal|Carlos]] was dubbed "The Jackal" by ''[[The Guardian]]'' after one of its correspondents reportedly spotted the novel near some of the fugitive's belongings.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/23/olivier-assayas-carlos-jackal|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131105044650/http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/23/olivier-assayas-carlos-jackal|archive-date = 5 November 2013|title = Carlos director Olivier Assayas on the terrorist who became a pop culture icon|website = [[The Guardian]]|date = 22 October 2010}}</ref>

A copy of the [[Hebrew]] translation of ''The Day of the Jackal'' was found in possession of [[Yigal Amir]], the Israeli who in 1995 [[Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin|assassinated]] [[Yitzhak Rabin]], [[Prime Minister of Israel]].

Would-be assassin [[Vladimir Arutinian]], who attempted to kill US president [[George W. Bush]] during his 2005 visit to the [[Republic of Georgia]], was an obsessive reader of the novel and kept an annotated version of it during his planning for the assassination.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/22/international/europe/22georgia.html|title = Georgian Admits Tossing Grenade Near Bush, but Provides No Motive|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 22 July 2005|last1 = Chivers|first1 = C. j.}}</ref>

== References to other Forsyth books ==

* In the prelude to '[[The Dogs of War (novel)|The Dogs of War]]', Forsyth describes every member of Carlo Shannon's mercenary squad. One of them, Kurt Semmler, is said to lose his respect for Colonel Marc Rodin when the OAS finally crumbled, which leads readers to assume that when the Jackal was killed, the OAS fell apart.
* In both this book and 'The Dogs of War', Forsyth explains how the [[Law enforcement in France|French police]] collect information from residents of hotels in the country.

== See also ==
* [[Citroën DS#In popular culture|Citroën DS]]
* [[Cordite]], which the assassin ingests to appear ill
* [[Jackal (The Day of the Jackal)|The Jackal]]

== Notes==
{{reflist|group=N}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Library resources box|by=yes|about=no}}
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02r7l2s Frederick Forsyth discusses ''The Day of the Jackal''] on the BBC ''[[World Book Club]]''
* [http://www.factbehindfiction.com/index_files/TheDayoftheJackalFrederickForsyth.htm The Day of the Jackal at FactBehindFiction.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121031104442/http://www.factbehindfiction.com/index_files/TheDayoftheJackalFrederickForsyth.htm |date=31 October 2012 }}
* [http://www.factbehindfiction.com/index_files/wayofthejackal.htm The Way of the Jackal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309071512/http://www.factbehindfiction.com/index_files/wayofthejackal.htm |date=9 March 2012 }}

{{The Day of the Jackal}}
{{Frederick Forsyth}}
{{Organisation armée secrète}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Day of the Jackal, The}}
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