Susan Cooper was born in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, England, on May 23, 1935, to John Richard, a Great Western Railway employee, and Ethel May Cooper, a teacher. She has one younger brother, also a writer, Roderick Cooper. After graduating from Slough High School she attended Somerville College, Oxford University, where she was the editor of the school magazine, Cherwell. She graduated with an MA in English in 1956, and proceeded to work for The Sunday Times in London as a reporter and feature writer under Ian Fleming.
In 1963, Cooper left England for America where she married Nicholas J. Grant, on August 3, 1963. In 1983, the pair separated.
In 1996, she married again, this time to longtime colleague Hume Cronyn, who passed away in 2003.
Cooper has two children, Jonathan and Katharine, and resides in Connecticut.
Awards[]
- Newbery Honor citation, The Dark Is Rising
- Newbery Medal, The Grey King
- Tir na n-Og Award, The Grey King
- Tir na n-Og Award, Silver on the Tree
- Janusz Korczak Literary Prize for Seaward
- 2012: American Library Association’s ‘Margaret A. Edwards Award’
- 2013: World Fantasy Award for life achievement
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)
Picture books[]
- 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 (2005)
- The Word Pirates (2019)
- The Shortest Day (2019)
Plays & Films[]
- Foxfire (1982)
- The Dollmaker (1984)
- To Dance With the White Dog (?)
Other[]
- Mandrake (1964)
- Dawn of Fear (1970)
- Seaward (1983)
- The Boggart (1993)
- Dreams and Wishes (1996)
- The Boggart and the Monster (1997)
- King of Shadows (1998)
- Green Boy (2002)
- Victory (2006)
- Ghost Hawk (2013)
- The Boggart Fights Back (2018)
Quotes[]
- "You don't say to yourself, I am writing fantasy. You don't even say to yourself, I am writing for kids. You just tell the story." - The Camelot Project 1999