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Mary Downing Hahn

Goodreads Author

Born

in Washington D.C., The United States

December 09

Website

http://www.hmhbooks.com/features/mdh/

Genre

Children's Books, Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Horror

Member Since

January 2012

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/Catwoman2

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I grew up in a small shingled house down at the end of Guilford Road in College Park, Maryland. Our block was loaded with kids my age. We spent hours outdoors playing "Kick the Can" and "Mother, May I" as well as cowboy and outlaw games that usually ended in quarrels about who shot whom. In the summer, we went on day long expeditions into forbidden territory -- the woods on the other side of the train tracks, the creek that wound its way through College Park, and the experimental farm run by the University of Maryland.

In elementary school, I was known as the class artist. I loved to read and draw but I hated writing reports. Requirements such as outlines, perfect penmanship, and following directions killed my interest in putting words on pa I grew up in a small shingled house down at the end of Guilford Road in College Park, Maryland. Our block was loaded with kids my age. We spent hours outdoors playing "Kick the Can" and "Mother, May I" as well as cowboy and outlaw games that usually ended in quarrels about who shot whom. In the summer, we went on day long expeditions into forbidden territory -- the woods on the other side of the train tracks, the creek that wound its way through College Park, and the experimental farm run by the University of Maryland.

In elementary school, I was known as the class artist. I loved to read and draw but I hated writing reports. Requirements such as outlines, perfect penmanship, and following directions killed my interest in putting words on paper. All those facts -- who cared what the principal products of Chile were? To me, writing reports was almost as boring as math.

Despite my dislike of writing, I loved to make up stories. Instead of telling them in words, I told them in pictures. My stories were usually about orphans who ran away and had the sort of exciting adventures I would have enjoyed if my mother hadn't always interfered.

When I was in junior high school, I developed an interest in more complex stories. I wanted to show how people felt, what they thought, what they said. For this, I needed words. Although I wasn't sure I was smart enough, I decided to write and illustrate children's books when I grew up. Consequently, at the age of thirteen, I began my first book. Small Town Life was about a girl named Susan, as tall and skinny and freckle faced as I was. Unlike her shy, self conscious creator, however, Susan was a leader who lived the life I wanted to live -- my ideal self, in other words. Although I never finished Small Town Life, it marked the start of a lifelong interest in writing.

In high school, I kept a diary. In college, I wrote poetry and short stories and dreamed of being published in The New Yorker. Unfortunately, I didn't have the courage or the confidence to send anything there.

By the time my first novel was published, I was 41 years old. That's how long it took me to get serious about writing. The Sara Summer took me a year to write, another year to find a publisher, and yet another year of revisions before Clarion accepted it.

Since Sara appeared in 1979, I've written an average of one book a year. If I have a plot firmly in mind when I begin, the writing goes fairly quickly. More typically, I start with a character or a situation and only a vague idea of what's going to happen. Therefore, I spend a lot of time revising and thinking things out. If I'd paid more attention to the craft of outlining back in elementary school, I might be a faster writer, but, on the other hand, if I knew everything that was going to happen in a story, I might be too bored to write it down. Writing is a journey of discovery. That's what makes it so exciting. ...more

Combine Editions
Mary Downing Hahn’s books

Average rating: 4.03 · 149,416 ratings · 16,811 reviews · 65 distinct works • Similar authors

	Wait Till Helen Comes 4.12 avg rating — 24,357 ratings — published 1986 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Deep and Dark and Dangerous 4.20 avg rating — 21,712 ratings — published 2007 — 24 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	All the Lovely Bad Ones 4.02 avg rating — 11,799 ratings — published 2008 — 34 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Took: A Ghost Story 3.96 avg rating — 11,215 ratings — published 2015 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Old Willis Place 4.14 avg rating — 10,540 ratings — published 2004 — 23 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Doll in the Garden 4.05 avg rating — 8,479 ratings — published 1989 — 25 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall 3.97 avg rating — 7,739 ratings — published 2010 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Closed for the Season 3.89 avg rating — 7,171 ratings — published 2009 — 28 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Girl in the Locked Room: A Ghost Story 3.79 avg rating — 6,449 ratings — published 2018 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	One for Sorrow 3.95 avg rating — 4,729 ratings — published 2017	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Mary Downing Hahn…

Series by Mary Downing Hahn

Gordy Smith (3 books)
by

Mary Downing Hahn (Goodreads Author)

4.08 avg rating — 4,838 ratings

Anna (2 books)
by

Mary Downing Hahn (Goodreads Author),

Diane deGroat (Illustrator)

3.80 avg rating — 218 ratings

Mary is Currently Reading

Mary is currently reading

Sutton

by J.R. Moehringer

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Oct 08, 2012 05:52PM

Mary is currently reading

The Yard (Scotland Yard's Murder Squad, #1)

by Alex Grecian (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Mary said: " So far, I don't like it and probably will not finish it. It's too gruesome for me and not especially well written.
I was right -- I never finished it. ...more "

Oct 08, 2012 05:51PM · see review

Quotes by Mary Downing Hahn (?)

“You look back on some little decision you made and realize all the things that happened because of it, and you think to yourself "if only I'd known," but, of course, you couldn't have known.”
― Mary Downing Hahn, The Dead Man in Indian Creek

tags: adventure, mystery

140 likes

“Odd, isn’t it? You know when your birthday is, but not your death day, even though you pass the date year after year, never suspecting that some day…”
― Mary Downing Hahn, The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall

tags: death

74 likes

“I wished that the chains would break and the wind would sweep me up, up, up into the sky, beyond the clouds, beyond the sun and the moon, to some marvelous kingdom where no one ever changed and friends were friends for life.”
― Mary Downing Hahn, Daphne's Book

49 likes

See all Mary Downing Hahn's quotes »

Polls

For the month of June, we will be featuring one author and voting for one of their books. Please vote for the author you would like to have featured!

Lois Lowry

13 votes, 16.5%

Linda Sue Park

9 votes, 11.4%

Judy Blume

8 votes, 10.1%

Lisa Graff

6 votes, 7.6%

Mary Downing Hahn

6 votes, 7.6%

Andrew Clements

6 votes, 7.6%

Jennifer A. Nielsen

5 votes, 6.3%

Avi

4 votes, 5.1%

Gail Carson Levine

4 votes, 5.1%

Bruce Coville

4 votes, 5.1%

Obert Skye

4 votes, 5.1%

E. D. Baker

3 votes, 3.8%

Ann M. Martin

3 votes, 3.8%

Morris Gleitzman

2 votes, 2.5%

Lucy Maud Montgomery

2 votes, 2.5%

79 total votes

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Mary’s Quotes

“If I had a large amount of money I should certainly found a hospital for those whose grip upon the world is so tenuous that they can be severely offended by words and phrases and yet remain all unoffended by the injustice, violence and oppression that howls daily about our ears.”
― Stephen Fry, Paperweight

284 likes

“What I mean by an educated taste is someone who has the same tastes that I have.”
― Edward Albee

1383 likes

“He imagines the water running in thick curving lines, like the drawings of the tree’s roots, cutting through stone and spilling over the earth. And then he reverses the flow of water, letting his imagination take over, and he sees the water racing north, uphill, towards the Catskills, weaving around towns, beneath bridges, rushing over stones and cutting through the trees, until it lands at the feet of Alice Pearson, who stands on the shore, looking out at the place where the water meets the sky.”
― Beth Hahn, The Singing Bone

tags: imagination, movement, new-york, reservoir, water

5 likes