Hal Lindsey is known as the Father of Modern Prophecy. His famous

     Late Great Planet Earth (1970)  took the Woodstock generation by

     storm. The number one non-fiction bestseller of the 70's  sold over

     35 million copies. It laid the foundation  for a billion dollar prophecy

     publishing empire.

     Lindsey basked in the limelight for 20 years accepting all the credit

     for creating this new genre of prophetic literature. However, in the

     early 1990's,  it was quietly revealed  that  the book  was actually 

     co-authored by a mysterious C.C. Carlson. Years later the mystery 

     co-author's picture began appearing on the back cover. "C.C." was

     a woman!     

     C. C. Carlson

      The Mysterious Co-Author Revealed

     Carole C. Carlson has written, or co-authored, over 21 books (that

     that we know of). But, there is really no telling who is writing what

     in the  Christian book business today.  It is  a common practice for

     big names  like Billy Graham  to have books written for them. Often

     this  is done  to  capitalize  on  name  recognition.  Sometimes the

     writer is credited and sometimes not.

     Hal Lindsey was 40 years old when  he published Late Great Planet

     Earth.  He  had  never  written  anything  longer than a term paper

     prior to that. His background as a soldier in the Korean war, a  New

     Orleans tugboat  captain and campus evangelist  does not suggest

     that he had an aptitude for writing.

     An active, outgoing,  outdoor type with  strong interpersonal skills, 

     Hal Lindsey is not  the  type  to sit  for hours  behind  a typewriter

     revising drafts for publication.

     So while Hal made public appearances,  appeared on TV, and made

     80 trips  to visit his Zionist friends in Israel, Carole quietly churned

     out the books  from  her home  in Ventura, California.  She allowed

     Hal to have the limelight.  

   A Woman Expositor

   An Historical Oddity   

     In 1970,  it was still considered  inappropriate for a woman to be a

    teacher  in Protestantism.  Therefore, one can understand why her

    involvement in writing the book was kept a secret.

     In fact,  if you  look back  through history  at the leading prophecy

    expositors  it is hard  to find  any women  of note at all. E.B. Elliott

    was an authority  on the history  of prophetic exposition. In Horae,

    he listed  the  leading  expositors  back  to  the second century. A

    woman is never mentioned. 

     It was unprecedented therefore,  for a  woman to have written not

    only a  prophecy book  but,   the  best selling  prophecy book of all

    time.  A book  that sold  more copies  than  all  the prophecy books 

    ever published to that time combined!

    Certainly  she deserves some  of the praise  and recognition for her

    work instead  of being treated  like  a skeleton  in the closet. And if

    Hal Lindsey is the father is she not the mother of modern prophecy?

                Notes    

<1>  Gary North  in  his  forward  to  Gary Demar's  The Legacy  of Hate Continues  (1989

        American Vision, Atlanta) comments  on  Hal  Lindsey's book The Road to Holocost:

        "The Road to Holocost can accurately  be  described as chloroform in print. I was its

        target and yet it nearly put me  to sleep. (Please, whatever  you do, do not smoke in

        bed while reading this book!).  It is not  just  that he got the facts wrong, it is that Hal 

        Lindsey without C.C. Carlson to ghost write his material is boring!  The man just can't

        write."

<2>  In 1990,  David  Jeremiah  and  C.C. Carlson  claimed  to  have  written  Escape the

        Coming Night -  a  book  about the rapture.  It  was soon  discovered that significant

        portions of  the book were plagiarized  from best  selling author  Hal Lindsey's 1973

        work  There  is  a  New  World  Coming.   After  realizing   that  at  least  47  pages        

        been  plagiarized,  his publisher  Word Books  destroyed  the inventory. In a written

        statement in 1998 they actually admitted theft. (From Christians Behaving Badly)

        But, is it plagerism when you use material from a book that you wrote? Carole wrote

        There is a New World Coming.

                          Books by Carole. C. Carlson