Scott O'Dell

Biography

Scott O'Dell (1898-1989) was a California author who spent much of his life near the California coast. He first heard the story of the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island as a boy and carried it for decades before writing the novel. He was 62 when it was published — older than most debut children's novelists. He was deeply concerned with the treatment of Native Americans in California history and intended the novel partly as a corrective to the 'cowboys and Indians' narratives that dominated children's literature of the era. He went on to write more than two dozen novels about Native American and Mesoamerican history. He used his Newbery Medal prize money to establish the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction.

Scott O'Dell at a glance