Susan Cooper

Last updated

Susan Cooper
Susan cooper 8313.JPG
Cooper in 2013
BornSusan Mary Cooper
(1935-05-23) 23 May 1935 (age 87)
Burnham, Buckinghamshire, England, UK
OccupationWriter
LanguageEnglish
Alma mater Somerville College, Oxford
Period1964–present
Genre Children's fantasy novels
Notable works The Dark Is Rising series
Notable awards Newbery Medal
1976
Margaret A. Edwards Award
2012
Spouse
    Nicholas Grant
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1963;div. 1983)​
Website
thelostland.com

Susan Mary Cooper (born 23 May 1935) is an English author of children's books. She is best known for The Dark Is Rising , a contemporary fantasy series set in England and Wales, which incorporates British mythology such as the Arthurian legends and Welsh folk heroes. [1] For that work, in 2012 she won the lifetime Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association, recognizing her contribution to writing for teens. [2] In the 1970s two of the five novels were named the year's best English-language book with an "authentic Welsh background" by the Welsh Books Council. [3]

Contents

Biography

Cooper was born in 1935 in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, to Ethel May (née Field) and her husband John Richard Cooper. [4] Her father had worked in the reading room of the Natural History Museum until going off to fight in the Second World War, from which he returned with a wounded leg. He then pursued a career in the offices of the Great Western Railway. Her mother was a teacher of ten-year-olds and eventually became deputy head of a large school. Her younger brother Roderick also grew up to become a writer. [4]

Cooper lived in Buckinghamshire until she was 21, when her parents moved to her grandmother's village of Aberdyfi in Wales. She attended Slough High School and then earned a degree in English at Somerville College at the University of Oxford, where she was the first woman to edit the undergraduate newspaper Cherwell [5] with her co-editor Patrick Nobes. [6]

After graduating, she worked as a reporter for The Sunday Times (London) under Ian Fleming and wrote in her spare time. During that period she began work on the series The Dark Is Rising and finished her debut novel, the science fiction Mandrake, published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1964. [7]

Cooper emigrated to the United States in 1963 to marry Nicholas J. Grant, a Professor of Metallurgy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a widower with three teenage children. [4] She had two children with him, Jonathan Roderick Howard Grant (b. 1965) and Katharine Mary Grant (b. 1966; later Katharine Glennon). She then became a full-time writer, focusing on The Dark Is Rising and on Dawn of Fear (1970), a novel based on her experiences of the Second World War. Eventually she wrote fiction for both children and adults, a series of picture books, film screenplays, and works for the stage.

Around the time of writing Seaward (1983), both of her parents died, and her marriage to Grant was dissolved. [4]

In July 1996, she married the Canadian-American actor and her sometime co-author Hume Cronyn, the widower of Jessica Tandy. (Cronyn and Tandy had starred in the Broadway production of Foxfire , written by Cooper and Cronyn and staged in 1982.) [8]

After Cronyn's death in 2003, she moved back to Massachusetts, building a house facing the North River in Marshfield, [9] and also living in Cambridge. [10] The history of the Marshfield area was the basis for her 2013 book Ghost Hawk, in which the spirit of a Wampanoag, whose people were decimated by European disease, witnesses the transformation of Massachusetts by the Plymouth Colony. [11]

Hollywood adapted The Dark Is Rising (1973) as a film in 2007, The Seeker . [12] It disappointed Cooper, who requested to no avail that some changes from her narrative be reverted. [13]

From 2006 to 2012, Cooper was on the Board of the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance (NCBLA), a US nonprofit organization that advocates for literacy, literature, and libraries. [14] [15]

In April 2017, Cooper gave the fifth annual Tolkien Lecture at Pembroke College, Oxford, speaking on the role of fantasy literature in contemporary society. [16]

In 2019 she published The Shortest Day, based on her performance poem of the same title written for the Cambridge Christmas Revels in the 1970s. [9]

Awards

For her lifetime contribution as a children's writer, Cooper was U.S. nominee in 2002 for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition available to creators of children's books. [17] [18]

The American Library Association's Margaret A. Edwards Award recognises one writer and a particular body of work for "significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature". Cooper won the award in 2012 citing the five Dark Is Rising novels, published 1965 to 1977. The citation observed, "In one of the most influential epic high fantasies in literature, Cooper evokes Celtic and Arthurian mythology and masterly world-building in a high-stakes battle between good and evil, embodied in the coming of age journey of Will Stanton." [2]

She has also been recognised for single books:

Works

Biography

Other nonfiction

Drama

Cooper wrote four screenplays produced for television, one supernatural tale for children and three more adaptations of books about Appalachia (as Foxfire). [20]

Short fiction

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lois Lowry</span> American writer

Lois Ann Lowry is an American writer. She is the author of several books for children and young adults, including The Giver Quartet,Number the Stars, and Rabble Starkey. She is known for writing about difficult subject matters, dystopias, and complex themes in works for young audiences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katherine Paterson</span> American author (born 1932)

Katherine Womelsdorf Paterson is an American writer best known for children's novels, including Bridge to Terabithia. For four different books published 1975–1980, she won two Newbery Medals and two National Book Awards. She is one of four people to win the two major international awards; for "lasting contribution to children's literature" she won the biennial Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing in 1998 and for her career contribution to "children's and young adult literature in the broadest sense" she won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award from the Swedish Arts Council in 2006, the biggest monetary prize in children's literature. Also for her body of work she was awarded the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature in 2007 and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal from the American Library Association in 2013. She was the second US National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, serving 2010 and 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Mahy</span> New Zealand childrens writer (1936-2012)

Margaret Mahy was a New Zealand author of children's and young adult books. Many of her story plots have strong supernatural elements but her writing concentrates on the themes of human relationships and growing up. She wrote more than 100 picture books, 40 novels and 20 collections of short stories. At her death she was one of thirty writers to win the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Medal for her "lasting contribution to children's literature".

<i>The Grey King</i>

The Grey King is a contemporary fantasy novel by Susan Cooper, published almost simultaneously by Chatto & Windus and Atheneum in 1975. It is the fourth of five books in her Arthurian fantasy series The Dark is Rising.

Elaine Lobl Konigsburg was an American writer and illustrator of children's books and young adult fiction. She is one of six writers to win two Newbery Medals, the venerable American Library Association award for the year's "most distinguished contribution to American children's literature."

<i>The Dark Is Rising Sequence</i> Series of fantasy novels for children by Susan Cooper

The Dark Is Rising Sequence is a series of five contemporary fantasy novels for older children and young adults that were written by the British author Susan Cooper and published from 1965 to 1977. The first book in the series, Over Sea, Under Stone, was originally conceived as a stand-alone novel, and the sequence gets its name from the second novel in the series, The Dark Is Rising. The Dark Is Rising Sequence is used as an over-arching title in several omnibus, boxed-set, and coordinated editions; but the title of The Dark is Rising is also used for the whole series.

<i>Silver on the Tree</i> 1977 novel by Susan Cooper

Silver on the Tree is a contemporary fantasy novel by Susan Cooper, published by Chatto & Windus in 1977. It is the final entry in the five book Dark Is Rising Sequence.

<i>Over Sea, Under Stone</i> 1965 childrens book by Susan Cooper

Over Sea, Under Stone is a contemporary fantasy novel written for children by the English author Susan Cooper, first published in London by Jonathan Cape in 1965. Cooper wrote four sequels about ten years later, making it the first volume in a series usually called The Dark Is Rising Sequence. In contrast to the rest of the series, it is more a mystery, with traditional fantasy elements mainly the subject of hints later in the narrative. Thus it may ease readers into the fantasy genre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Fleischman</span> American writer of childrens books

Paul Fleischman is an American writer of children's books. He and his father Sid Fleischman have both won the Newbery Medal from the American Library Association recognizing the year's "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children". For the body of his work he was the United States author nominee for the international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2012.

Irene Hunt was an American children's writer known best for historical novels. She was a runner-up for the Newbery Medal for her first book, Across Five Aprils, and won the medal for her second, Up a Road Slowly. For her contribution as a children's writer she was U.S. nominee in 1974 for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition available to creators of children's books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Candlewick Press</span> Publishing company

Candlewick Press, established in 1992 and located in Somerville, Massachusetts, is part of the Walker Books group. The logo depicting a bear carrying a candle is based on Walker Books's original logo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patricia Wrightson</span> Australian childrens writer

Patricia Wrightson OBE was an Australian writer of several highly regarded and influential children's books. Employing a 'magic realism' style, her books, including the award-winning The Nargun and the Stars (1973), were among the first Australian books for children to draw on Australian Aboriginal mythology. Her 27 books have been published in 16 languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virginia Hamilton</span> American writer of childrens books

Virginia Esther Hamilton was an American children's books author. She wrote 41 books, including M. C. Higgins, the Great (1974), for which she won the U.S. National Book Award in category Children's Books and the Newbery Medal in 1975.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natalie Babbitt</span> American childrens writer and illustrator (1932–2016)

Natalie Zane Babbitt was an American writer and illustrator of children's books. Her 1975 novel Tuck Everlasting was adapted into two feature films and a Broadway musical. She received the Newbery Honor and Christopher Award, and was the U.S. nominee for the biennial international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1982.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Coatsworth</span> American poet

Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth was an American writer of fiction and poetry for children and adults. She won the 1931 Newbery Medal from the American Library Association award recognizing The Cat Who Went to Heaven as the previous year's "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children." In 1968 she was a highly commended runner-up for the biennial international Hans Christian Andersen Award for children's writers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lygia Bojunga Nunes</span>

Lygia Bojunga is a Brazilian writer of children's books under the name Lygia Bojunga Nunes. She is one of four people to win the two major international awards: for "lasting contribution to children's literature", she received the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1982. For her career contribution to "children's and young adult literature in the broadest sense" she won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2004.

Marcus Sedgwick was a British writer and illustrator. He authored several young adult and children's books and picture books, a work of nonfiction and several novels for adults, and illustrated a collection of myths and a book of folk tales for adults. According to School Library Journal his "most acclaimed titles" were those for young adults.

Foxfire is a play with songs, book by Susan Cooper, Hume Cronyn, music by Jonathan Brielle (Holtzman) and lyrics by Susan Cooper, Hume Cronyn, and Jonathan Brielle. The show was based on the Foxfire books, about Appalachian culture and traditions in north Georgia and the struggle to keep the traditions alive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashley Bryan</span> American childrens writer and illustrator (1923–2022)

Ashley Frederick Bryan was an American writer and illustrator of children's books. Most of his subjects are from the African-American experience. He was U.S. nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2006 and he won the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for his contribution to American children's literature in 2009. His picture book Freedom Over Me was short-listed for the 2016 Kirkus Prize and received a Newbery Honor.

<i>The Little Bookroom</i>

The Little Bookroom is a collection of twenty-seven stories for children by Eleanor Farjeon, published by Oxford University Press in 1955 with illustrations by Edward Ardizzone. They were selected by the author from stories published earlier in her career. Most were in the fairy tale style.

References

  1. ↑ Elizabeth Hand. "Susan Cooper". Richard Bleiler, ed. Supernatural Fiction Writers: Contemporary Fantasy and Horror. New York: Thomson/Gale, 2003. Pp. 239–44. ISBN   0-684-31250-6.
  2. 1 2 "Edwards Award 2012". Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). American Library Association (ALA).
      "Edwards Award". YALSA. ALA. Retrieved 2013-10-11.
  3. 1 2 3 "Tir na n-Og Awards". Welsh Books Council (WBC).
    "Tir na n-Og awards Past Winners" Archived 10 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine . WBC. Retrieved 2013-03-14.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Chaston, Joel D. (1996). "Susan (Mary) Cooper". In Caroline C. Hunt (ed.). Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 161: British Children's Writers Since 1960: First Series. Detroit: Gale. Retrieved 5 August 2013.(subscription required)
  5. ↑ Charles Butler, Four British Fantasists: Place and Culture in the Children's Fantasies of Penelope Lively, Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones, and Susan Cooper (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), page 14.
  6. ↑ "Editor's Corner: Susan Cooper". Cherwell . 18 February 2022. p. 32.
  7. ↑ Susan Cooper at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved 2012-03-05.
  8. 1 2 ​Foxfire​ at the Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 2012-03-15.
  9. 1 2 Nancy Shohet West, "'Children are as good readers as ever,' says acclaimed author Susan Cooper", The Boston Globe, 11 March 2020.
  10. ↑ One repeated source of biographical data is Susan Cooper, Dreams and Wishes: Essays on Writing for Children, Margaret K. McElderry (date?). ISBN   0-689-80736-8.
  11. ↑ Ghost Hawk. LCC record. Retrieved 2013-02-12.
  12. ↑ The Seeker at IMDb Retrieved 2012-03-25.
  13. ↑ "Author Uncertain About 'Dark' Leap to Big Screen". Margot Adler. National Public Radio. 2007. Retrieved 2012-03-15.
  14. ↑ "The NCBLA Board of Directors". NCBLA. Archived from the original on 4 October 2006. Retrieved 4 October 2006.
  15. ↑ "The NCBLA Board of Directors". NCBLA. Archived from the original on 22 March 2012. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
  16. ↑ Photographs, podcast, and video for Susan Cooper's Tolkien Lecture, The J.R.R. Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature, 2017-04-30. Retrieved 2017-06-20.
  17. ↑ "Hans Christian Andersen Awards". International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY). Retrieved 2013-07-22.
  18. ↑ "Candidates for the Hans Christian Andersen Awards 1956–2002". The Hans Christian Andersen Awards, 1956–2002. IBBY. Gyldendal. 2002. Pages 110–18. Hosted by Austrian Literature Online (literature.at). Retrieved 2013-07-22.
  19. 1 2 "Newbery Medal and Honor Books, 1922 – present". Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC). ALA. Retrieved 2012-03-15.
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "The Lost Land of Susan Cooper". Susan Cooper. Retrieved 2013-03-14.
  21. ↑ "J. B. Priestley: Portrait of an Author". Library of Congress Catalog Record (LCC). Retrieved 2013-02-12.
  22. ↑ According to the publisher description, Cooper is "a friend and writer for the Revels".
    "The Magic Maker: a Portrait of John Langstaff, Creator of the Christmas ...". LCC record. Retrieved 2013-02-12.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.