Richard Lee Marks, 80; Novelist Based Books on Historical Facts

Richard Lee Marks, 80, an author whose books blended historical facts with novelistic techniques, died Feb. 1 of heart failure at a hospice in Topeka, Kan.

His book “Cortes,” published in 1993, was a biography of Hernando Cortes, the 16th century conquistador who subjugated the Mexican empire with just 500 warriors. Critics praised its narrative power and focus on fascinating personalities.

A Los Angeles Times reviewer wrote: “Marks’ book almost qualifies as a new subspecies of literature: ‘history’ that does not claim to be exhaustive, spurns all the elaborate refuse of ‘scholarship,’ bears some of the didactic flavor of the traditional fable, and is personal in tone.”

Marks, a Chicago native, also wrote “Three Men of the Beagle,” a 1991 book described by Contemporary Authors as “a somewhat speculative account” of naturalist Charles Darwin’s crucial naval voyage to South America. It focuses on Darwin, the naval vessel’s captain and a member of a primitive Indian tribe that Darwin encountered in Tierra del Fuego.

After serving as an officer in the Pacific during World War II, Marks traveled to many of the areas he later wrote about. When he returned to the United States, he settled in New York, and was headmaster and co-owner of a private school in White Plains. He also was a theatrical producer in New York for many years.