Laura Hillenbrand's Life And Accomplishments

Laura Hillenbrand

Laura Hillenbrand was an unknown name until she published Seabiscuit in 2001. She is considered a great author because she has published great books, but she also had to overcome chronic fatigue an incurable disease.

Laura Hillenbrand was born on May 15, 1967. She lived in the suburbs of Washington D.C. “When she was around 10 years old, she was on the swim team, and while the team would wait for the occasional storm to pass, her swim coach would tell the young swimmers stories. Those early sessions would be the first seeds in her writing life, and by the time she reached junior high school, Hillenbrand had written a drawer full of short stories, composed while she was supposed to be in her room doing homework.”(1)

A historical event that happened was 9/11. On September 11, 2001 Islamist terrorist hijacked four planes that were flying above the US. Two of them were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. Another was crashed into the Pentagon. When Hillenbrand was diagnosed with chronic fatigue she was forced to dropout of college, and go back home. When she was ready she “moved to Chicago, where Flanagan was doing graduate work at the University of Chicago. Here, she tapped into her early loves—writing and horses—and she started with an article on the dangers of horse racing.”(1)

“The book, which was the result of four years of research and writing, was an instant success—so instant, in fact, that it made its way to No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list before it was even advertised. The book stayed at No. 1 for nearly 10 months and remained on the best-seller list for more than two