Susan Sheehan Explained

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

Biography

Born in Vienna, Austria, she won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1983 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. Portions of the book were published in The New Yorker, for which she has written frequently since 1961 as a staff writer. 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 Non-Fiction for A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam in 1989. Sheehan and her husband lived in Washington, D.C.

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
• 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

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

Notes and References

1. Book: Brennan. Elizabeth A.. Clarage. Elizabeth C.. Who's who of Pulitzer Prize winners. 1999. 1-57356-111-8. 268–269. Profiles of the winners: General non-fiction. registration. https://archive.org/details/whoswhoofpulitze00bren.
2. Web site: Pulitzer Prize Winners: General Non-Fiction. The Pulitzer Prizes -- Columbia University. 2008-02-28.
3. Web site: Susan Sheehan Books, Author Bio, Book Review & More at Alibris Marketplace. Alibris. 26 April 2013.
4. Web site: Sanger . David E. . Scott. Janny. Harlan. Jennifer. Gallagher. Brian. 'We're Going to Publish': An Oral History of the Pentagon Papers . The New York Times . June 9, 2021 . June 13, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210613071158/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/06/09/us/pentagon-papers-oral-history.html. June 26, 2023.