Susan Sheehan

Susan Sheehan (née Sachsel; born August 24, 1937)^[1] is an Austrian-born American writer.

Biography

Born in Vienna, Austria,^[1] she won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for her book Is There No Place on Earth for Me?^[2] The book details the experiences of a young New York City woman diagnosed with schizophrenia.^[1] Portions of the book were published in The New Yorker, for which she has written frequently since 1961 as a staff writer.^[1] Her work as a contributing writer has also appeared in The New York Times and Architectural Digest.^[3]

In 1986, Sheehan published in The New Yorker "A Missing Plane," a three-part series about the U.S. Army's attempt to identify the remains of the victims of a 1944 airplane crash.

Her husband was the journalist Neil Sheehan, whom she urged to copy what became known as the Pentagon Papers for the Times with her help,^[4] and who also won a Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction ^[1] for A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam in 1989.^[2] Sheehan and her husband lived in Washington, D.C.^[3]

Works

Her other works include:

• 1967 Ten Vietnamese
• 1976 A welfare mother
• 1978 A prison and a prisoner
• 1984 Kate Quinton's days
• 1986 A missing plane
• 1993 Life for Me Ain't Been No Crystal Stair^[1]
• 2002 The Banana Sculptor, the Purple Lady, and the All-Night Swimmer: Hobbies, Collecting, and Other Passionate Pursuits (co-written with Howard Means)

Further reading

• Warren, James (1990-04-15). "The remarkable Sheehans: 2 Pulitzer prize winners, a good marriage, some tortuous times". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2010-06-02.
• Warren, James (1993-09-26). "She Needs Her Space". Chicago Tribune.

References

1. Brennan, Elizabeth A.; Clarage, Elizabeth C. (1999). "Profiles of the winners: General nonfiction". Who's who of Pulitzer Prize winners. pp. 268–269. ISBN 1-57356-111-8.
2. "Pulitzer Prize Winners: General Nonfiction". The Pulitzer Prizes -- Columbia University. Retrieved 2008-02-28.
3. "Susan Sheehan Books, Author Bio, Book Review & More at Alibris Marketplace". Alibris. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
4. Sanger, David E.; Scott, Janny; Harlan, Jennifer; Gallagher, Brian (June 9, 2021). "'We're Going to Publish': An Oral History of the Pentagon Papers". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 13, 2021. Retrieved June 26, 2023.