Susan Mary Cooper is an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
author best known for
The Dark Is Rising, an award-winning five-volume (fantasy) saga set in and around England and Wales. The books incorporate traditional British mythology, such as
ArthurianKing Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
and other Welsh elements with original material (e.g. "the
Old OneOld One may be a term used to refer to a god or other deity. Old Ones may also be a term used to refer to beings who co-existed with early humans according to many religions...
s"); these books were adapted into a movie,
The Seeker (film)The Seeker, titled The Dark Is Rising in the United Kingdom and The Seeker: The Dark is Rising in Canada, is a 2007 American film adaptation of the second book in the five-book young adult fantasy series The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper. The film is directed by David L...
. She has written works for children, adolescents and adults.
Susan Cooper is also a board member of the
National Children's Book and Literacy AllianceNational Children's Book and Literacy Alliance is an American non-profit organization that advocates on behalf of literacy, literature, and libraries for young people...
, a not-for-profit organization in the U.S. that actively advocates for literacy, literature, and libraries.
Biography
Born in 1935, in
Burnham, BuckinghamshireBurnham is a village and civil parish that lies north of the River Thames in the South Bucks District of Buckinghamshire, and sits on the border with Berkshire, between the towns of Maidenhead and Slough. It is served by Burnham railway station in the west of Slough on the main line between London...
, Susan Cooper lived in
BuckinghamshireBuckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
until she was 21, when her parents moved to her grandmother's village of Aberdovey,
WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. She attended Slough High School and then earned a degree in
EnglishEnglish studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
from the
University of OxfordThe University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
.
After graduation, she worked as a reporter for
The Sunday TimesThe Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
of London under
Ian FlemingIan Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
, and wrote books in her spare time. During this period, she began work on the
Dark Is Rising sequence and finished her first book, the
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel
Mandrake.
In 1963, she left Britain for the United States to marry a Professor of
MetallurgyMetallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. It is also the technology of metals: the way in which science is applied to their practical use...
, named Nicholas J. Grant, at The
Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
. She then began writing full-time, focusing on
The Dark Is Rising series and the 1970
Dawn of Fear, based on her childhood wartime experiences. Her output would eventually encompass works of fiction for both children and adults, a series of picture books, film screenplays, and works for the stage.
In July 1996, Cooper married Canadian-American actor and her sometime co-author
Hume CronynHume Blake Cronyn, OC was a Canadian actor of stage and screen, who enjoyed a long career, often appearing professionally alongside his second wife, Jessica Tandy.-Early life:...
, the widower of the late
Jessica TandyJessie Alice "Jessica" Tandy was an English-American stage and film actress.She first appeared on the London stage in 1926 at the age of 16, playing, among others, Katherine opposite Laurence Olivier's Henry V, and Cordelia opposite John Gielgud's King Lear. She also worked in British films...
. They remained married until Cronyn's death in June 2003. Cooper currently lives in
Marshfield, MassachusettsMarshfield is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States, on Massachusetts's South Shore. The population was 25,132 at the 2010 census.See also: Green Harbor, Marshfield , Rexhame, Marshfield Hills, and Ocean Bluff and Brant Rock....
.
The Dark Is Rising sequence
- Over Sea, Under Stone
Over Sea, Under Stone is the first novel in the five-volume "The Dark Is Rising" sequence by British author Susan Cooper. It was first published in London by Jonathan Cape in 1965. It tells of the three Drew children: Simon, Jane and Barney, and their holiday to Cornwall...
(1965)
- The Dark is Rising
The Dark Is Rising is the name of a five-book series of children's contemporary fantasy novels by Susan Cooper, published in 1965–1977, which depicts the struggle between the forces of good, called The Light, and the forces of evil, known as The Dark...
(1973)
- Greenwitch
The Dark Is Rising is the name of a five-book series of children's contemporary fantasy novels by Susan Cooper, published in 1965–1977, which depicts the struggle between the forces of good, called The Light, and the forces of evil, known as The Dark...
(1974)
- The Grey King
The Dark Is Rising is the name of a five-book series of children's contemporary fantasy novels by Susan Cooper, published in 1965–1977, which depicts the struggle between the forces of good, called The Light, and the forces of evil, known as The Dark...
(1975)
- Silver on the Tree
The Dark Is Rising is the name of a five-book series of children's contemporary fantasy novels by Susan Cooper, published in 1965–1977, which depicts the struggle between the forces of good, called The Light, and the forces of evil, known as The Dark...
(1977)
Other novels
- Mandrake (1964)
- Dawn of Fear (1970)
- Seaward (1983)
- The Boggart
The Boggart is a children's novel by Susan Cooper published in 1993 by Macmillan. The book was nominated for a Young Reader's Choice Award in 1996.It tells the tale of a family from Canada, the Volniks, who inherit a castle in Scotland...
(1993)
- The Boggart and the Monster (1997)
- King of Shadows
King of Shadows is a children's novel by Susan Cooper published in 1999 by Penguin. The book was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.Only in the world of the stage can Nat Field find an escape from the tragedies that have shadowed his young life...
(1998)
- Green Boy (2002)
- Victory the story of Samuel Robbins
Samuel Robbins was a member of the crew of HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar.Robbins was born in London, England and served on HMS Victory from 2 April 1805 till he was discharged on 14 January 1806, meaning that he served during, and survived the Battle of Trafalgar.-Victory:Susan Cooper...
a boy who served on HMS VictoryHMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, laid down in 1759 and launched in 1765. She is most famous as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805....
at the Battle of TrafalgarThe Battle of Trafalgar was a sea battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy, during the War of the Third Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars ....
(June 2006)
Picture books for children
- Jethro and the Jumbie (1979)
- The Silver Cow (1983)
- The Selkie Girl (1986)
- Matthew's Dragon (1991)
- Tam Lin (1991)
- Danny and the Kings (1993)
- Frog (2002)
- The Magician's Boy (February 2005)
Awards
- Newbery Honor citation, The Dark Is Rising (1974)
- Newbery Medal
The John Newbery Medal is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association . The award is given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. The award has been given since 1922. ...
, The Grey King (1976)
- Tir na n-Og Award, The Grey King (1976)
- Tir na n-Og Award, Silver on the Tree (1978)
- Janusz Korczak
Janusz Korczak, the pen name of Henryk Goldszmit was a Polish-Jewish children's author, and pediatrician known as Pan Doktor or Stary Doktor...
Literary Prize for Seaward (1989)
External links