Susan Cooper

For other people named Susan Cooper, see Susan Cooper (disambiguation).

Susan Cooper
Born	23 May 1935 (1935-05-23) (age 76) Burnham, Buckinghamshire, England

Susan Mary Cooper (born 23 May 1935) is an English 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 Arthurian and other Welsh elements with original material (e.g. "the Old Ones"); these books were adapted into a movie, The Seeker (film). She has written works for children, adolescents and adults.

Susan Cooper is also a board member of the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance, a not-for-profit organization in the U.S. that actively advocates for literacy, literature, and libraries.

Biography

Born in 1935, in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, Susan Cooper lived in Buckinghamshire until she was 21, when her parents moved to her grandmother's village of Aberdovey, Wales. She attended Slough High School and then earned a degree in English from the University of Oxford.

After graduation, she worked as a reporter for The Sunday Times of London under Ian Fleming, 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 fiction novel Mandrake.

In 1963, she left Britain for the United States to marry a Professor of Metallurgy, named Nicholas J. Grant, at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 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 Cronyn, the widower of the late Jessica Tandy. They remained married until Cronyn's death in June 2003. Cooper currently lives in Marshfield, Massachusetts.^[1]

Bibliography

The Dark Is Rising sequence

• Over Sea, Under Stone (1965)
• The Dark is Rising (1973)
• Greenwitch (1974)
• The Grey King (1975)
• Silver on the Tree (1977)

Other novels

• Mandrake (1964)
• Dawn of Fear (1970)
• Seaward (1983)
• The Boggart (1993)
• The Boggart and the Monster (1997)
• King of Shadows (1998)
• Green Boy (2002)
• Victory the story of Samuel Robbins a boy who served on HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar (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)

Movies

• The Seeker (film) (2007)

Plays

• Foxfire (play)

Awards

• Newbery Honor citation, The Dark Is Rising (1974)
• Newbery Medal, 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 Literary Prize for Seaward (1989)

References

1. ^ Biographical information taken from: Susan Cooper. Dreams and Wishes; Essays on Writing for Children. McElderry Books. ISBN 0689807368

External links

• Susan Cooper biographical website
• NCBLA Susan Cooper bio
• Susan Cooper at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Susan Cooper: Novel synopses, cover art, and reviews at Fantasy Literature

Persondata
Name	Cooper, Susan Mary
Alternative names	Cronyn, Susan Cooper (current name); Grant, Susan Mary (first married name)
Short description	Children's writer
Date of birth	23 May 1935
Place of birth	Burnham, Buckinghamshire, England
Date of death
Place of death