Stephen Hunter
Stephen Hunter | |
---|---|
Born | Kansas City, Missouri, U.S. | March 25, 1946
Occupation |
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Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Northwestern University |
Period | 1971–present |
Genre | Thrillers |
Subject | Film, handguns |
Notable works | Point of Impact (1993) |
Notable awards | Pulitzer Prize for film criticism |
Stephen Hunter (born March 25, 1946, Kansas City, Missouri) is an American novelist, essayist, and film critic.
Life and career
Hunter was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in Evanston, Illinois. His father was Charles Francis Hunter, a Northwestern University speech professor who was murdered in 1975 by two male prostitutes.[1] His mother was Virginia Ricker Hunter, a writer of children's books. After graduating from Northwestern in 1968 with a degree in journalism, he was drafted for two years into the United States Army. He served in the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment in Washington, D.C., a unit that has both operational and ceremonial missions, the latter most notably being the guard force for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. He also wrote for a military paper, the Pentagon News.[2]
He joined
Hunter's thriller novels include
Hunter has written three non-fiction books: Violent Screen: A Critic's 13 Years on the Front Lines of Movie Mayhem (1995), a collection of essays from his time at The Sun; American Gunfight (2005), an examination of the November 1, 1950 attempted assassination of Harry S. Truman; and Now Playing at the Valencia (2005), a collection of pieces from The Washington Post. Hunter has also written a number of non-film-related articles for The Post, including one on Afghanistan: "Dressed To Kill—From Kabul to Kandahar, It's Not Who You Are That Matters, but What You Shoot" (2001).[4]
Hunter is a
In an interview with NPR on February 16, 2011, Hunter defended the public availability of high-capacity magazines after the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others. He also said that it was not clear whether the 33-round magazine used by shooter Jared Lee Loughner played a part in the shooting.[5] He had previously written in The Washington Post that extended magazines are particularly valuable to women and the elderly, who he said could use them effectively as an alternative to semi-automatic rifles or shotguns. He points out that "women generally don't care to put in the training needed to master [rifles and shotguns]. Nor can the elderly handle [long guns] adeptly."[6]
Works
Novels
Bob Lee Swagger series:
- Point of Impact (1993)
- Black Light (1996)
- Time to Hunt (1998)
- The 47th Samurai (2007)
- Night of Thunder(2008)
- I, Sniper (2009)
- Dead Zero (2010)
- The Third Bullet (2013)
- Sniper's Honor (2014)
- G-Man (2017)
- Game of Snipers (2019)
- Targeted (2022)
- Dirty White Boys (1994), prequel to events in Black Light
Earl Swagger series:
- Hot Springs (2000)
- Pale Horse Coming (2001)
- Havana (2003)
- The Bullet Garden (January 24, 2023[7])
Ray Cruz series:
- Dead Zero (2010)
- Soft Target (2011)
Stand-alones:
- The Master Sniper (1980)
- The Second Saladin (1982)
- Target (1985), novelization of film Target
- The Spanish Gambit (reissued as Tapestry of Spies) (1985)
- The Day Before Midnight (1989)
- I, Ripper (2015)
- Basil's War (2021)
Short stories
- "Casey at the Bat" (2010) (in Agents of Treachery, edited by Otto Penzler)
Non-fiction
- Violent Screen: A Critic's 13 Years on the Front Lines of Movie Mayhem (1996)
- Now Playing at the Valencia: Pulitzer Prize-Winning Essays on Movies (2005)
- American Gunfight: The Plot to Kill Harry Truman and the Shoot-out that Stopped It (2005) with John Bainbridge, Jr., ISBN 0743281950
References
- ^ Wendel, Tim (May 1, 2008). "Gunslinger Stephen Hunter". Washingtonian. Retrieved February 20, 2011.
- ^ a b Burger, Jim (March 2009). "Drinks, Shoots, and Seethes". Baltimore. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved February 20, 2011.
- ^ Romenesko, Jim (May 23, 2008). "WP names many of the 100+ staffers taking paper's buyout". Poynter.org. Poynter Institute. Retrieved July 3, 2019.
- ^ Hunter, Stephen (November 26, 2001). "Dressed To Kill—From Kabul to Kandahar, It's Not Who You Are That Matters, but What You Shoot". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 28, 2021.
- ^ a b Conan, Neal (February 16, 2011). "Tucson Shooting Renews Gun Control Debate". NPR. Retrieved February 20, 2011.
- ^ Hunter, Stephen (February 6, 2011). "Why 33 rounds makes sense in a defensive weapon". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
- ISBN 978-1-9821-6976-3.