Susan Cooper

3 universes Last reviewed 2026-10-08

Susan Cooper, born Susan Mary Cooper on May 23, 1935, in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, England, is the daughter of a father who worked at the Natural History Museum before serving in World War II and a mother who was a schoolteacher. She attended Slough High School before earning an English degree from Somerville College, Oxford, where she became the first woman to edit the undergraduate newspaper Cherwell. After graduating, she worked as a reporter for The Sunday Times in London under the editorship of Ian Fleming, honing her craft before emigrating to the United States in 1963 to become a full-time writer of children's fantasy, picture books, screenplays, and stage works. Her signature achievement is The Dark Is Rising sequence (1965–1977), a contemporary fantasy series steeped in British mythology and Arthurian legend, alongside other notable works including Dawn of Fear (1970) and Ghost Hawk (2013). Cooper's numerous honors include the 1976 Newbery Medal for The Grey King, the 2012 Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime contribution to young adult literature, the 2013 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2020, and the 2024 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award, making her the fortieth recipient of that honor.

Universe(s)

Books

• Over Sea, Under Stone (1965) · The Dark Is Rising Core Canon
• The Dark Is Rising (1973) · The Dark Is Rising Core Canon
• Greenwitch (1974) · The Dark Is Rising Core Canon
• The Grey King (1975) · The Dark Is Rising Core Canon
• Silver on the Tree (1977) · The Dark Is Rising Core Canon
• The Boggart (1993) · The Boggart Core Canon
• The Boggart and the Monster (1997) · The Boggart Core Canon
• King of Shadows (1999) · King of Shadows Core Canon
• The Boggart Fights Back (2018) · The Boggart Core Canon

Aggregate across all universes

These are separate, unrelated universes; the totals below are plain sums of already-published per-universe facts, never a blended or averaged score across them. See each universe's own figures above.

• Total Core Canon books across all universes: 9 books
• Award recognitions across all universes: 5 (2 won, 2 finalist mention, 1 honor mention)

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