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Summary
Summary
Simon, Jane and Barney, enlisted by their mysterious great uncle, arrive in a small coastal town to help recover a priceless golden grail stolen by the forces of evil, the 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.
Author Notes
Susan Cooper was born in Buckinghamshire, England in May of 1935. She attended Slough Grammar School, and then went on to Somerville College and Oxford. She was the first woman to ever edit the University Magazine, the Cherwell. She graduated from Oxford with an MA in English and went to work for London's The Sunday Times as a reporter on the Atticus Column for Ian Flemming. She evenutally made it to features writer, during which time she wrote her first book, "Mandrake," a science fiction story for adults.
Soon after the publication of "Mandrake," Cooper wrote the children's story "Over Sea, Under Stone" for a publishing house competition. It would later become the first of a five book series she would become famous for. She left England in 1963 to marry an American professor. Once there, she wrote two more books for adults, "Behind the Golden Gate" a study of America, and "Portrait of an Author" the biography of J. B. Priestley. In 1970, Cooper published "Dawn of Fear" an almost entirely autobiographical book about growing up as a child during the war. Even though Cooper wrote "Over Sea, Under Stone" as a entry for a publishing house competittion, she did not know at the time that it would be the first of her most famous copilation, "The Dark is Rising Series." In 1973 she wrote the second in the five book series, entitled "The Dark is Rising," published more than ten years after the first. In1974, Cooper published Greenwitch, book three, and book four, "The Grey King" a year later. "The Grey King" won the Newberry Medal in 1976. "Silver on the Tree" was the fifth and last book published, completing the series in 1977.
After completing the "Dark is Rising" series, Cooper turned to writing for the theater, learning the style from Urjo Kareda at Tarragon Theatres in Toronto. She wrote for Jack Langstaff's "Revels." Her first major play was called "Foxfire," which was written in coolaboration with Hume Cronyn. The play eventually went to Broadway in 1983 and starred Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, who won a Tony for her performance. Cooper then began working on "Seaward," but was interrupted by Jane Fonda, who wanted her to write the screenplay for Harriet Arnow's "The Dollmaker." She wrote the adaptation with Cronyn and won a Humanitas Award for it, while Jane Fonda won the Best Actress Emmy for her role. Cooper also got an Emmy nomination for her adaptation of "Foxfire" for television. "To Dance with the White Dog," a made for tv movie, was the last collaboration of Cooper, Cronyn and Tandy, Tandy having died in '94.
IN the '80's and '90's, Cooper wrote the text for many children's picture books such as, "Jethro and the Jumbie" and "Danny and the Kings." 1993 marked her return to the Children's Book List with "The Boggart" and int's follow up "The Boggart and the Monster" in 1997. In 1996, Cooper published a collection of essays on children's literature entitled, "Dreams and Wishes." Over the course of her career, Cooper has written for newspapers, books for children and adults, screen[plays for television and cinema, and a Broadwat play. Today, she lectures on children's literture and continues to write.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-9-In Cooper's sweeping epic of the struggle between forces of good and evil, the background of Arthurian legend is prominent. When the Dark comes rising, Will Stanton, the youngest of the Old Ones, is guided in his quest to save the world by his mentor Merriman (Merlin), who also involves the three Drew siblings and a strange Welsh boy, Bran. © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
Read by Alex Jennings. Susan Cooper Silver on the TreeRead by Alex Jennings.The battle between the dark and the light comes to an end, and Cooper's magnificent five-part series is finally complete in audio. Narrator Alex Jennings's resonant voice captures with ease the characters involved in the mysterious forces that inhabit this mythical landscape.From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
The epic confrontation between the Light and the Dark continues (see The Dark is Rising, KR, 1973), and now the battlefield is magic-favored Cornwall where the Greenwitch -- a totem figure annually sacrificed to the sea -- has stolen the manuscript which Old Ones Merriman Lyon and Will Stanton need to defeat the powers of evil. The supernatural forces that converge for this chapter of the quest are sharply drawn and breathtakingly impressive -- particularly the whining petulant Greenwitch who has no understanding of the importance of his stolen ""secret"" but calls armies of ghostly Norsemen from the sea to protect his prized possession. And the emissary of the dark, who lives in a gypsy caravan and literally paints his spells on canvas, is a fine example of an over-ambitious junior grade devil. It still seems to us that the metaphor of the final ""all-time"" struggle between ""Light"" and ""Dark"" is too grandiose and abstract. Imagine going meekly to bed, as do Barney, Simon and Jane, while the devil and the spirits of the sea wage war outside your cottage window. Imagine evil incarnate, fighting for its very life, having no better agent than the skulking, unreliable landscape painter. Cooper never lets us forget that this is the sort of grand moral struggle that can be fought without ever missing one's evening cup of cocoa. It all would be more exciting if there were just a little real risk involved, but the literally earth-shaking fireworks are nevertheless quite a show. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
