Susan Mary Cooper (born 23 May 1935) is a British author best known for The Dark Is Rising, an award-winning five-volume fantasy saga set in and around England and Wales. The books incorporate traditional British mythology (Arthurian and folkloric elements) with original material (e.g. "the Old Ones"). She has written works for children, adolescents and adults.
Easton Press Susan Cooper books
The Dark is Rising Sequence - 2008 - 5 volume set including:
The Dark is Rising - Signed Limited Edition
Over Sea, Under Stone
Greenwitch
Silver on the Tree
The Grey King
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Author Susan Cooper
Born in 1935, in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, Susan Cooper lived in Buckinghamshire until she was 21, when her parents moved to her grandmother's village of Aberdovey, Wales. She attended Slough High School and then earned a degree in English from the University of Oxford.After graduation, she worked as a reporter for the Sunday Times of London under Ian Fleming, and wrote books in her spare time. During this period, she began work on the Dark Is Rising sequence and finished her first book, the science fiction novel Mandrake.
In 1963 she left England for the United States to marry a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She then began writing full-time, focusing on The Dark Is Rising series and the 1970 Dawn of Fear, based on her childhood wartime experiences. Her output would eventually encompass works of fiction for both children and adults, a series of picture books, film screenplays, and works for the stage.
In July 1996, Cooper married Canadian-American actor and her sometime co-author Hume Cronyn, the widower of the late Jessica Tandy. They remained married until Cronyn's death in June 2003.
Over Sea, Under Stone
On holiday in Cornwall, the three Drew children discover an ancient map in the attic of the house that they are staying in. They know immediately that it is special. It is even more than that the key to finding a grail, a source of power to fight the forces of evil known as the Dark. And in searching for it themselves, the Drews put their very lives in peril. This is the first volume of Susan Cooper's brilliant and absorbing fantasy sequence known as The Dark Is Rising.The Dark is Rising
This night will be bad and tomorrow will be beyond imagining.It's Midwinter's Eve, the day before Will's eleventh birthday. But there is an atmosphere of fear in the familiar countryside around him. This will be a birthday like no other. Will discovers that he has the power of the Old Ones, and that he must embark on a quest to vanquish the terrifyingly evil magic of the Dark.
The second novel in Susan Cooper's highly acclaimed Dark is Rising sequence.
Greenwitch
Simon, Jane, and Barney, enlisted by their mysterious great-uncle, arrive in a small coastal town to recover a priceless golden grail stolen by the forces of evil Dark. They are not at first aware of the strange powers of another boy brought to help, Will Stanton nor of the sinister significance of the Greenwitch, an image of leaves and branches that for centuries has been cast into the sea for good luck in fishing and harvest. Their search for the grail sets into motion a series of disturbing, sometimes dangerous events that, at their climax, bring forth a gift that, for a time at least, will keep the Dark from rising.The Grey King
With the final battle between the Light and the Dark soon approaching, Will sets out on a quest to call for aid. Hidden within the Welsh hills is a magical harp that he must use to wake the Sleepers - six noble riders who have slept for centuries.Silver on the Tree
The Dark is rising in its last and greatest bid to control the world. And Will Stanton last-born of the immortal Old Ones, dedicated to keeping the world free must join forces with this ageless master Merriman and Bran, the Welsh boy whose destiny ties him to the Light. Drawn in with them are the three Drew children, who are mortal, but have their own vital part in the story. These six fight fear and death in the darkly brooding Welsh hills, in a quest through time and space that touches the most ancient myths of the British Isles, and that brings Susan Cooper's masterful sequence of novels to a satisfying close.
Source and additional information: Susan Cooper