The books were published in the 1960s and '70s, and one of them won the Newbery Medal in 1976. Then I started writing The Dark Is Rising." "And out of that came a very strange day, once when I had an idea about an 11-year-old boy who wakes up one morning and finds out he can do magic.
She kept shelves full of books "about everything that would let me go back in my head to the places that were precious," Cooper says. But the British Isles never left her heart, or her writing. At the age of 27 she uprooted herself, married an American scientist and came to the United States. In the course of four other books, set in the Thames Valley, Cornwall and Wales, Will and a small group of other children battle the dark.Ĭooper says the books came right out of her own homesickness. In the novel, Will Stanton must search for six powerful signs to empower the light and fight the dark. It's the substance of all story - all myth, anyway."
" books are about the fact that everybody is a mixture of good and evil, and life is a war between the two sides of us. "I think it gave me this sense of the light and the dark. Her mother, Cooper says, told her stories while she was hiding in those shelters, an experience that later had an impact on her writing. But her early childhood, spent in England during World War II, was filled with sirens, bombs and air-raid shelters. The open landscape reminds her of her home in England.Ĭooper says she always knew she would write: She inherited a Celtic love of the words and melody of song from her Welsh grandmother. Susan Cooper's house lies an hour south of Boston, overlooking a marsh with herons and egrets. Written by Susan Cooper more than 30 years ago, it chronicles the journey of a young boy with special powers who must lead a fight against dark forces.Ī recent visit with the author finds that fantasy doesn't always translate easily into film. 5, its Hollywood version comes out in theaters. The five books are best known by the title of the second: The Dark Is Rising. The films' success means Hollywood is banking on more fantasy franchises.Įnter another, somewhat less famous series of books - that has a no less devoted following. In the past six years, a number of them - The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter - also have made it to Hollywood. There is a small group of fantasy-novel series so deeply beloved that they have gained cult status. In the order they were published, they are: Over Sea, Under Stone, The Dark Is Rising (Newbery Honor Book 1974), Greenwitch, The Grey King (Newbery Medal winner 1976) and Silver on the Tree. Five books by Susan Cooper make up The Dark Is Rising series.
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