Susan Cooper Popular Books
Susan Cooper Biography & Facts
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. 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. 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. In 2024, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association named her the 40th Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master in recognition of her significant contributions to the literature of science fiction and fantasy. Biography Cooper was born in 1935 in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, to Ethel May (née Field) and her husband John Richard Cooper. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.) After Cronyn's death in 2003, she moved back to Massachusetts, building a house facing the North River in Marshfield, and also living in Cambridge. 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. Hollywood adapted The Dark Is Rising (1973) as a film in 2007, The Seeker. Before she saw the film, Cooper stated that she had requested some changes to it, but had received no response. 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. In April 2017, Cooper gave the fifth annual Tolkien Lecture at Pembroke College, Oxford, speaking on the role of fantasy literature in contemporary society. 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. 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. 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." In 2024, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association named her the 40th Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master in recognition of her significant contributions to the literature of science fiction and fantasy. She has also been recognised for single books: 1974, Newbery Honor (runner-up for the Medal), The Dark Is Rising (1973 novel) 1976, Newbery Medal, The Grey King 1976, Tir na n-Og Award, The Grey King 1978, Tir na n-Og Award, Silver on the Tree 1989, B'nai B'rith Janusz Korczak Literary Prize, Seaward Works Biography J. B. Priestley: Portrait of an Author (London: Heinemann, 1970) – biography of the English writer and socialist John Boynton Priestley The Magic Maker: A Portrait of John Langstaff and His Christmas Revels (Candlewick Press, 2011) – juvenile biography of John Langstaff, founder of the Revels performances Other nonfiction Behind the Golden Curtain: A View of the USA (Hodder & Stoughton and Scribner's, 1965) Dreams and Wishes: Essays on Writing for Children (Simon & Schuster, 1996) Drama Foxfire, Cooper and Hume Cronyn (Samuel French Inc, 1982), stage playbook – produced on Broadway as Foxfire (1982) – based on the Foxfire books Cooper wrote four screenplays produced for television, one supernatural tale for children and three more adaptations of books about Appalachia (as Foxfire). Dark Encounter (Shadows, Series 2; Thames Television, 1976) The Dollmaker (ABC, 1984) To Dance with the White Dog (Hallmark, 1993) Jewel (CBS, 2001) Short fiction "Muffin", Amy Ehrlich, ed., When I Was Your Age: Original Stories about Growing Up (Volume 1) (Candlewick) – story set in World War II England (as Dawn of Fear) "Ghost Story", Don't Read This! (US, Front Street), Fingers on the Back of the Neck (UK, Puffin) – collection supporting IBBY Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out (Candlewick) – Cooper wrote one piece of this mixed-genre NCBLA collaboration The Exquisite Corpse Adventure (Candlewick) – Cooper wrote one episode of this sequential story collaboration of children's authors and illustrators by NCBLA for the LC website "The Caretakers", Haunted (Anderson Press collection, UK only) References Further reading Four British Fantasists: Place and Culture in the Children's Fantasies of Penelope Lively, Alan Garner.... Discover the Susan Cooper popular books. 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Best Seller Susan Cooper Books of 2024
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The Nightingales in Mersey Square
Lilly RobbinsCan friendship save them in their time of need?1940: When trainee nurses Clare and Gaye, alongside their new friend Diana discover that the war is forcing the mothers and children ...
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The Boggart and the Monster
Susan CooperWhen the Scottish owner of Castle Keep died, the ancient castle went to his Canadian greatnephew, Robert Volnik. There was no way the Volniks could keep the castle, so it was sold ...
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Calling Major Tom
David M Barnett'I loved everything about it.' Goodreads 'This book made me laugh, cry, giggle and gasp.' Goodreads'One of my favourite books of the year. Charming and very sweet.' Goodreads He...
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The Tower of Bones
Frank P. RyanFour young people have slipped from our world into the enchanted land of Tír in this 'epic adventure that just does not stop!' (Glenda A. Bixler on Authorsden), where they must fac...
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Circus Excite
Nikki MagennisJulia Spark is a professional dancer, newly graduated. Jobs are hard to find and, after a curious audition, she finds herself running away with the circus a circus of erotica. It'...
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Listening at the Gate
Betsy JamesJOURNEY TO THE EDGE OF THE WORLD... In her father's village Kat is scorned for her fiery red hair, the legacy of her father's shameful marriage to a native woman. Her only true ho...
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Salutation To The Sun
Rita BeintemaThe Salutation to the Sun dates back to Vedic times and is therefore three to six thousand years old; although the exact date remains unknown. In ancient India yoga exercises, brea...
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A Note Of Madness
Tabitha SuzumaLife as a student is good for Flynn. As one of the top pianists at the Royal College of Music, he has been put forward for an important concert, the opportunity of a lifetime.But b...
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Delilah And The Dark Stuff
Susan Davis'I don't do dark stuff. Dark stuff comes back on you three times over.'After bad experiences with spooks Abbie and Lauren have sworn off the dark arts. Then selfproclaimed teenwitc...
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Works of Susan Fenimore Cooper
Susan Fenimore Cooper4 works of Susan Fenimore Cooper American writer and amateur naturalist (18131894) This ebook presents a collection of 4 works of Susan Fenimore Cooper. A dynamic table of contents...
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Five Steps to Happy
Ella DoveAS SEEN ON ITV'S LORRAINE'An uplit treasure' Red magazineWhen struggling actress Heidi has a lifechanging accident aged 32, her world falls apart. Stuck in hospital and unable to w...
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Female Suffrage
Susan Fenimore Cooper"...The natural position of woman is clearly, to a limited degree, a subordinate one. Such it has always been throughout the world, in all ages, and in many widely different condit...
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Paddlefeet
Christine PurkisDarting through the water, the tiny creature feels a vast shadow and sees gigantic thrashing limbs: a Paddlefoot! Peering into the depths from up above, the girl glimpses a flash o...
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Every Chart Topper Tells a Story
Sharon DavisThe seventies witnessed great changes not only in dress style but also in music. The psychedelia of the late sixties had mutated into glam rock by the early seventies, while the la...
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Book Of Looking To Jesus Discoverying Commentary On Hebrews
Byron Cooper"The Epistle to the Hebrews, or Letter to the Hebrews, or in the Greek manuscripts, simply To the Hebrews is one of the books of the New Testament. The text does not mention th...
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The Secret Prince
Violet HaberdasherKnightley Academy is back in session, and Henry Grim is confident that nothing else can prevent him from earning his knighthood. But Henry and his friends quickly discover that the...
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Inventing Joy
Joy ManganoNATIONAL BESTSELLER “It was an honor to play Joy on the big screenshe’s such a fearless woman, an incredible business force and an inspiration to everyone she meets.” Jennifer Lawr...
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Four British Fantasists
Charles ButlerFour British Fantasists explores the work of four of the most successful and influential fantasy writers of the generation who rose to prominence in the "second Golden Age" of chil...
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The Long Journey Home
Susan CooperTrooper is different from many other dogs; he has been born with only one eye. In a world of disposable possessions, where dogs are chosen because they are cute and fluffy, Trooper...
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Advent
James TreadwellA drowning, a magician’s curse, and a centuriesold secret. 1537. A man hurries through city streets in a gathering snowstorm, clutching a box in one hand. He is Johann Faust, the g...
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Escape from Shadow Island - Max Cassidy 1
Paul Adam'My mum killed my dad, then dragged his body all the way along the beach . . . I don't believe a word of it'Max Cassidy is a teenage escapologist, so good he's nicknamed the Halfpi...
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The Boggart
Susan CooperIn a tumbledown castle in the Western Highlands of Scotland lives the Boggart. He is invisible an ancient mischievous spirit, solitary and sly, born of a magic as old as the rocks...
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The Snowmelt River
Frank P. RyanFour teenagers are drawn from an Irish mountaintop into an enchanted land and gifted with great powers: but with power comes responsibility, and a vast evil has noticed their arriv...
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Rubbish Town Hero
Nicola DaviesChipo and his little sister Gentle live on Papa Fudu's dumpsite in Rubbish Town, searching for valuable things amongst the rubbish to try to stay alive. Life isn't easy luckily, C...
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Princess Milly and the Fancy Dress Festival
Lauren BeardIt's fancy dress time at Rainbow Towers and Milly is making all the costumes. But watch out! Will Milly's magic get in a muddle AGAIN?
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Arcadia
James Treadwell“Magnificent.” Publishers Weekly (starred review) It’s a year and a half after the events of Anarchya novel hailed as “bewitchingly perplexing and supernaturally entertaining” (Kir...
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Anarchy
James TreadwellThe second novel in an astonishingly imaginative fantasy trilogy that began with the critically acclaimed and “supernaturally entertaining” (Kirkus Reviews) Advent. Look for the th...
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Mammoth Book of Best British Crime 11
Maxim JakubowskiThis superb annual anthology of the year’s most outstanding short crime fiction published in the UK is now well into its second decade. Jakubowski has succeeded, once again, in une...