33 Facts About Laura Hillenbrand

Laura Hillenbrand was born on May 15,1967 and is an American author.

Laura Hillenbrand's two bestselling nonfiction books, Seabiscuit: An American Legend and Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, have sold over 13 million copies, and each was adapted for film.

Laura Hillenbrand's writing style is distinct from New Journalism, dropping "verbal pyrotechnics" in favor of a stronger focus on the story itself.

Laura Hillenbrand shared that experience in an award-winning essay, A Sudden Illness, published in The New Yorker in 2003.

Laura Hillenbrand's books were written while she was disabled by myalgic encephalomyelitis, known as chronic fatigue syndrome.

Laura Hillenbrand began her career as a freelance magazine writer, pitching and submitting stories to various publications.

Laura Hillenbrand's fiance was working on his PhD at the time.

Laura Hillenbrand first wrote for Equus magazine with a story called Surviving Fractures in June 1990.

Laura Hillenbrand continued to contribute to the magazine and in 1997 she became a contributing editor.

Laura Hillenbrand won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year in 2001 for this book.

Laura Hillenbrand's second book, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, was a biography of World War II hero Louis Zamperini, an Olympian track runner.

Laura Hillenbrand's essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Equus magazine, American Heritage, The Blood-Horse, Thoroughbred Times, The Backstretch, Turf and Sport Digest, and other publications.

Laura Hillenbrand's writing style belongs to a new school of nonfiction writers, who come after the new journalism, focusing more on the story than a literary prose style:.

Laura Hillenbrand belongs to a generation of writers who emerged in response to the stylistic explosion of the 1960s.

Laura Hillenbrand was born in Fairfax, Virginia, the daughter and youngest of four children of Elizabeth Marie Dwyer, a child psychologist, and Bernard Francis Laura Hillenbrand, a lobbyist who became a minister.

Laura Hillenbrand spent much of her childhood riding bareback "screaming over the hills" of her father's Sharpsburg, Maryland farm.

Laura Hillenbrand studied at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio but was forced to leave before graduation when she contracted chronic fatigue syndrome, with which she has struggled ever since.

Laura Hillenbrand married Borden Flanagan, a professor of government at American University and her college sweetheart, in 2006.

Laura Hillenbrand mentioned in the interview how her subject, Louis Zamperini, inspired her in facing her own life problems during their many phone calls with his unfailing optimism.

Laura Hillenbrand said that Zamperini had read her essay about her own illness, which was partly why he opened up about his life so thoroughly, trusting that she could understand what he had endured.

Laura Hillenbrand stated that her primary literary influences were writers of fiction, including Hemingway, Tolstoy, and Jane Austen.

In fall 2015, Laura Hillenbrand made a trip by road to Oregon, her first time out of Washington DC since 1990 that did not result in debilitating vertigo.

Laura Hillenbrand traveled across the US with her new partner, making many stops along the way to see the country.

Laura Hillenbrand has reported that taking the trip to "see America" was risky, but her preparations resulted in a successful trip and much joy from adding activities long absent from her life.

At Kenyon College, Laura Hillenbrand had been an avid tennis player, cycled in the nearby country, and played football on the quad.

At age 19 and in her sophomore year, Laura Hillenbrand experienced the sudden onset of a then unknown sickness while driving back to school from spring break.

Laura Hillenbrand became violently ill and three days later, she could hardly sit up in bed or walk to classes.

Laura Hillenbrand shuttled from doctor to doctor for a year before being diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome at Johns Hopkins.

Laura Hillenbrand said it was the most hellish year of her life.

Laura Hillenbrand was met with ridicule and told she was lazy during the first ten years of her sickness.

Laura Hillenbrand described the onset and early years of her illness in an award-winning essay, A Sudden Illness in 2003.

Laura Hillenbrand read old newspaper articles by buying the old newspapers or borrowing them from libraries, rather than using microfilm or other forms of archived news articles, and did all her live interviews by telephone.

Laura Hillenbrand has begun horse riding and bicycle riding, two activities she had not done since the disease struck her in 1987.