LAURA HILLENBRAND
G'day folks,
Welcome to the life of an author who suffers from the same disability as me - chronic fatigue. Laura
Hillenbrand is the bestselling author of such nonfiction works as 'Seabiscuit'
and 'Unbroken.'
Synopsis
Laura
Hillenbrand grew up in the northern suburbs of Washington, D.C., and began
writing at an early age. While attending Kenyon College, her life would change
when she suddenly feel ill with chronic fatigue syndrome, a debilitating
condition with no cure. Confined to her home, Hillenbrand began writing in
earnest, and her first book, Seabiscuit , was published in 2002. A
massive bestseller, Seabiscuit added Hillenbrand to the literary
consciousness, and she would add to her reputation in 2010 with Unbroken.
The life story of Louis Zamperini, Olympic athlete and war hero, the book was
another smash and spawned a high-profile Hollywood release.
Early Years
Laura
Hillenbrand was born on May 15, 1967, and grew up in the northern suburbs of
Washington, D.C. When she was around 10 years old, she was on the swim team,
and while the team would wait for the occasional storm to pass, her swim coach
would tell the young swimmers stories.
Those
early sessions would be the first seeds in her writing life, and by the time
she reached junior high school, Hillenbrand had written a drawer full of short
stories, composed while she was supposed to be in her room doing homework.
At
Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, Hillenbrand made a big impression on her
English teacher, who spotted her talent right away. When Hillenbrand wasn’t
writing, she loved to study history and ride horses, and she and her sister
even saved up babysitting money to buy a filly named Allspice, who was headed
for slaughter.
Hillenbrand
loved horses so much that she considered pursuing a career as a jockey, going
so far as buying a special saddle—but the falls she took convinced her
otherwise. Regardless, her experiences with horses as a youngster would be the
next piece to fall into place in her literary puzzle.
Chronic Fatigue
After
high school, Hillenbrand headed off to nearby Ohio to study at Kenyon College.
There she met future husband Borden Flanagan. Six months into the relationship,
Hillenbrand became sick—too sick, in fact, to even leave her dorm room. She was
forced to drop out of college and move back home, where her health only got
worse. Hillenbrand finally got some clarity on her situation at the Division of
Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where
doctors told her she had something called chronic fatigue syndrome, a condition
that has no cure and no real treatment.
Seabiscuit and Unbroken
In late
1988, Hillenbrand felt well enough to move to Chicago, where Flanagan was doing
graduate work at the University of Chicago. Here, she tapped into her early
loves—writing and horses—and she started with an article on the dangers of
horseracing.
She sent her article to a horse-racing
magazine called Turf Flash, and it was soon published, leading to other
assignments with Turf Flash and later with Equus
magazine. Hillenbrand kept writing, and eventually her love of history, writing
and horse-racing led her to write Seabiscuit
(2002), the unlikely story of a less-than-perfect horse finding huge success on
the track. The book, which was the result of four years of research and
writing, was an instant success, so instant, in fact, that it made its way to
No. 1 on the New York Times
bestseller list before it was even advertised. The book stayed at No. 1 for
nearly 10 month and remained on the bestseller list for more than two years. Seabiscuit sold more 6
million copies in the United States alone and has been translated into 15
languages. It also spawned a hugely successful film that garnered seven Oscar
nominations.
She won the
2004 National Magazine Award for her article “A Sudden Illness,” which was
published in the New Yorker.
She continues to write for publications like The
New York Times and Vanity
Fair, among others.
Eight years
after Seabiscuit
put Hillenbrand on the literary map, she returned with a vengeance with Unbroken: A World War II Story of
Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. Based on the life of Louis
Zamperini, and created from more than 75 phone interviews with Zamperini, the
book details the former Olympic athlete’s life as a runner, WWII prisoner of
war and inspirational figure. Another major bestseller, the book inspired
a 2014 film, directed by the actress Angelina Jolie.
Clancy's comment: Well done, Laura. As I have previousy mentioned on this blog, chronic fatigue is a nasty thing, but I've pushed hard against it and used work to stay positive and focused. However, it has become a major stumbling block for many people. The only thing I've learnt is that you have a high possibility of getting it if you have suffered from glandular fever. Ah, we battle on, eh?
I'm ...
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