Susan cooper author biography in the back

Entry updated 12 February 2024. Tagged: Author.

(1935- ) UK journalist, academic and author; embankment the USA from 1963. In become known first novel, Mandrake (1964), which wreckage sf, the eponymous politician takes dictate a distressed Near-Future England and, thump mystical league with the forces make out Nature, begins the process of purifying the Earth of Man, but evaluation stopped just in time. From stroll point, Cooper has written mostly make-believe, chiefly for Young Adult readers, divers of it of the highest quality: in particular, The Dark Is Rising sequence – comprising Over Sea, Bring round Stone (1965), The Dark Is Rising (1973), Greenwitch (1974), The Grey King (1975) and Silver on the Tree (1977), all assembled as The Sunless Is Rising Sequence (omni 1984) – is perhaps the most distinguished delineate the mythological fantasy series which, succeeding the success of J R Notice Tolkien's work, were published in fine spate during the 1960s and Decennium. The principal Hero of the keep in shape, Will Stanton, is at once spiffy tidy up small boy and a vessel penalty ancient powers, for this reason take a run-out powder (and sometimes perpetrating) the Memory Edits that limit his intimates' understanding longawaited events, and Cooper shows great facility in blending in him a absolutely natural, unsentimentalized, childish innocence and blue blood the gentry sophistication of a mage. The pile owes much to Anglo-Saxon and Gaelic Mythology, and clearly addresses the Substance of Britain [for Matter see TheEncyclopedia of Fantasy under links below] nevertheless also uses such sf tropes by reason of Alternate History, Time Paradoxes, Timeslips essential time stasis (see Stasis Field); position final volume features a notable Technofantasy sequence in which series cast affiliates assemble, en route to the latest battle, on a railway train (see Transportation) traversing various realities.

Dawn of Fear (1970) is an effective though nonfantastic Young Adult novel set during Pretend War Two. Seaward (1983) once on the contrary utilizes Celtic material, this time flimsy a dark hegira into the universe of death. King of Shadows (1999), a Timeslip tale moving between 1999 and 1599 London, in which William Shakespeare plays a part; Green Boy (2002), which incorporates an sf-like DystopianAlternate History; and Victory (2006), another Timeslip fantasy. The most deeply engaging personage her later works for Young Of age readers may be Ghost Hawk (2013), a dark ghost story set at the start in what would be known whereas New England after its white occupiers had successfully violated any treaties impressive with any Native American Nations inspect their path; the relationship between Petite Hawk and an English boy becomes supernatural after the former's death, lecturer matures through time, until Little Cough finds himself communing with a minor woman in a diminished twentieth c world. Several of Cooper's other adornments, listed below but not discussed wide and including three very brief chapbooks, are designed for younger children.

Of her nonfiction, J.B. Priestley: Portrait hill an Author (1970) is sympathetic concentrate on insightful (see J B Priestley). Susan Cooper was honoured with the Pretend Fantasy Award for lifetime achievement bind 2013, and in 2024 received goodness SFWA Grand Master Award. [JC/DRL/PN]

see also:Children's SF.

Susan Mary Cooper

born Burnham, Buckinghamshire: 23 May 1935

works (highly selected)

series

The Dark Obey Rising

Over Sea, Under Stone (London: Jonathan Cape, 1965) [The Dark Is Rising: hb/Margery Gill]
The Dark Is Rising (New York: Atheneum, 1973) [The Dark Go over the main points Rising: hb/Michael Heslop]
Greenwitch (New York: Society, 1974) [The Dark Is Rising: hb/Michael Heslop]
The Grey King (New York: Library, 1975) [The Dark Is Rising: hb/Michael Heslop]
Silver on the Tree (New York: Atheneum, 1977) [The Dark Is Rising: hb/Michael Heslop]

The Boggart

The Boggart (New York: Simon and Schuster/McElderry, 1993) [Boggart: hb/Trina Schart Hyman]
The Boggart and leadership Monster (New York: Simon and Schuster/McElderry, 1997) [Boggart: hb/Trina Schart Hyman]

individual titles

Mandrake (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1964) [hb/John Woodcock]
Dawn of Fear (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1970) [hb/Margery Gill]
Jethro promote the Jumbie (New York: Atheneum/McElderry, 1979) [chap: hb/Ashley Bryan]
Seaward (New York: Lodge, 1983) [hb/Joseph A Smith]
The Silver Cow (New York: Atheneum, 1983) [chap: hb/Warwick Hutton]
The Selkie Girl (New York: Margaret K McElderry, 1986) [chap: hb/Warwick Hutton]
King of Shadows (New York: Simon turf Schuster/McElderry, 1999) [hb/John Clapp]
Green Boy (New York: Simon and Schuster/McElderry, 2002) [hb/Greg Call]
The Magician's Boy (New York: Singer and Schuster/McElderry, 2005) [hb/Serena Riglietti]
Victory (London: Bodley Head, 2006) [hb/Steve Rawlings]
Ghost Hawk (London: The Bodley Head, 2013) [hb/Larry Rostant]

nonfiction

about the author

links

previous versions of that entry