Scott O'Dell
Scott O'Dell (May 23, 1898 – October 15, 1989) was an American children's author who wrote 26 books for young readers, along with three adult novels and four nonfiction books. He was most famously the author of the children's novel Island of the Blue Dolphins (1960), which won the 1961 Newbery Medal as well as a number of other awards. Other award winning books by O'Dell include The King's Fifth (1966), Black Star, Bright Dawn (1988), The Black Pearl (1967), and Sing Down the Moon (1970) which were all Newbery Honor award books. O'Dell wrote primarily historical fiction. Many of his children's novels are about historical California and Mexico.
Biography
Scott O'Dell was born Odell Gabriel Scott, on Terminal Island in Los Angeles, California, to parents May Elizabeth Gabriel and Bennett Mason Scott. He attended multiple colleges, including Occidental College in 1919, the University of Wisconsin in 1920, Stanford University in 1920-1921, and the University of Rome La Sapienza in 1925. During World War II, he served in the Air Force. Before becoming a full time writer he worked in Hollywood as a cameraman and technical director, as a book columnist for the Los Angeles Mirror, and a book editor for the Los Angeles Daily News. It was during his period as a newspaper columnist that an editor transposed his name into Scott O'Dell, which Scott liked enough to legally change his name to.
O'Dell began writing both nonfiction and fiction books for adults and articles in 1934. In the late 1950s he began writing children’s books. Scott O’Dell received the Hans Christian Andersen Award for lifetime achievement in 1972. In 1976 he received the University of Southern Mississippi Silver Medallion, and the Regina Medal in 1978.
In 1981, he established the Scott O’Dell Historical Fiction Award, an award for $5,000 that recognizes outstanding works of historical fiction. The winners must be published in English by a U.S. publisher and be set in the New World (North, Central, and South America). In 1986, The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books awarded O’Dell this same award. Scott O’Dell died of prostate cancer on October 15, 1989.
Film adaptations
There have been several film adaptations of O'Dell's work. Island of the Blue Dolphins has been translated into a number of languages and was made into a movie in 1964, starring Celia Kaye, Larry Domasin, Ann Daniel, and George Kennedy. In 1978, Saul Swimmer produced and directed a film version of "The Black Pearl" with Gilbert Roland and Mario Custodio. The King's Fifth was adapted into the 1982 television anime series The Mysterious Cities of Gold, a Japan-France co-production that was aired in several different countries.
References
- Scott O'Dell's website
- Commire, Anne (ed.) (1990). Something About the Author Vol. 60. Gale Research Inc.: Detroit.