[1][2] In addition to working as an editor at Omnibook Magazine and the Book-of-the-Month Club, Thacher authored the novels The Captain, The Tender Age and A Break in the Clouds.
The Captain, Thacher's first novel, is set on board a Landing Ship, Tank in the Pacific Theater during World War II.
The novel is notable for its early positive portrayal of homosexuality, exemplified in the characters of two crew members, though male eroticism is an undercurrent throughout the book.
It was published by Macmillan in New York in 1951 and Allan Wingate in London in 1952, with subsequent paperback editions.
[4] In 1963, he was hired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, originally working for the firm in New York City before heading out west, where he was the studio's vice president for production.