Stephen Hunter (born March 25, 1946, in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

) is an American novelist, essayist, and

film critic Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: Academic criticism by film scholars, who study the composition of film theory and publish their findin ...

Life and career

Hunter was born in

, and grew up in

Evanston, Illinois Evanston is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States, situated on the North Shore (Chicago), North Shore along Lake Michigan. A suburb of Chicago, Evanston is north of Chicago Loop, downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skok ...

. His father was Charles Francis Hunter, a

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

speech professor who was murdered in 1975 by two male prostitutes. 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 The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

. 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.'' He joined ''

The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local, regional, national, and international news. Founded in 1837, the newspaper was owned by Tribune Publi ...

'' in 1971, working at the copy desk of the newspaper's Sunday edition for a decade. He became its film critic in 1982, a post he held until moving to ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' in the same function in 1997. In 1998 Hunter won the American Society of Newspaper Editors Distinguished Writing Award in the criticism category, and in 2003 he received the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. He accepted a buyout from the ''Post'' in 2008. Hunter's thriller novels include '' Point of Impact'' (filmed as '' Shooter''), ''

Black Light A blacklight, also called a UV-A light, Wood's lamp, or ultraviolet light, is a lamp (fixture), lamp that emits long-wave (UV-A) ultraviolet light and very little visible light. One type of lamp has a violet light filter, filter material, eith ...

'' and '' Time to Hunt'', which form a trilogy featuring

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

veteran and

sniper A sniper is a military or paramilitary marksman who engages targets from positions of concealment or at distances exceeding the target's detection capabilities. Snipers generally have specialized training and are equipped with telescopic si ...

Bob "the Nailer" Swagger. The story of Bob Lee Swagger continued with '' The 47th Samurai'' (2007), '' Night of Thunder'' (2008), '' I, Sniper'' (2009), ''Dead Zero'' (2010), ''The Third Bullet'' (2013), ''Sniper's Honor'' (2014) and ''G-Man'' (2017). The series has led to two spin-off series: ''

Hot Springs A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a Spring (hydrology), spring produced by the emergence of Geothermal activity, geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow ...

'', '' Pale Horse Coming'', and ''

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.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). Hunter is a

firearms A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and operated by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see legal definitions). The first firearms originated ...

enthusiast, well known in the gun community for firearm detail in many of his works of fiction. He himself shoots as a hobby, saying "many people don't understand, shooting a firearm is a sensual pleasure that's rewarding in and of itself." In an interview with NPR on February 16, 2011, Hunter defended the public availability of high-capacity

magazines A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

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. 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 ifles and shotguns Nor can the elderly handle ong gunsadeptly."

Works

Novels

''Bob Lee Swagger'' series: # '' Point of Impact'' (1993) # ''

'' (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: # ''

'' (2000) # '' Pale Horse Coming'' (2001) # ''

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.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.,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter, Stephen 1946 births Living people Writers from Kansas City, Missouri American film critics Pulitzer Prize for Criticism winners American crime fiction writers American thriller writers 20th-century American novelists The Baltimore Sun people The Washington Post people United States Army soldiers Medill School of Journalism alumni Writers from Baltimore 21st-century American novelists American male novelists 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from Maryland Novelists from Missouri 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers