Honestly, it is kind of wild when you think about it. Laura Hillenbrand has basically only written two major adult non-fiction books in over twenty years.
Just two.
In an era where authors are pressured to churn out a "brand" every eighteen months, she’s the outlier. Yet, those two books—Seabiscuit: An American Legend and Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption—didn't just sell; they became cultural earthquakes. They were turned into massive Hollywood movies. They sat on the New York Times bestseller list for years. Not weeks. Years.
There’s a reason for that.
Hillenbrand doesn't just "report" history. She lives it from her desk. Because of a decades-long battle with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (often called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or ME/CFS), she was often housebound or even bedbound while writing these epics. She couldn't go to the archives. She couldn't travel to Japan or visit a racetrack. Instead, she had to bring the world to her. She conducted thousands of hours of phone interviews. She bought vintage newspapers from the 1930s just to feel the paper and see the ads, soaking in the sensory details of a world she couldn't physically visit.
The Unlikely Legend: Seabiscuit (2001)
Before books written by laura hillenbrand became a household phrase, nobody really cared about a crooked-legged horse from the Depression era.
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Seabiscuit was, by all accounts, a mess. He was small. He had knobby knees. He liked to eat and sleep more than he liked to run. But Hillenbrand saw something in the "undersized" underdog that mirrored the American spirit during the 1930s.
She tracked three men who were just as broken as the horse:
- Charles Howard: A bicycle repairman who made a fortune in cars but lost his son.
- Tom Smith: A "whispering" trainer from the dying Old West who understood animals better than people.
- Red Pollard: A failing, half-blind jockey who read Shakespeare in the stables.
The book is a masterpiece of pacing. You don't have to like horse racing to feel your heart hammer during the match race against War Admiral. It’s about more than sport; it’s about the refusal to be finished.
The Improbable Survival: Unbroken (2010)
If Seabiscuit was about grit, Unbroken was about the sheer, terrifying elasticity of the human soul.
It tells the story of Louis Zamperini. He was a 1936 Olympic runner who ended up as a bombardier in WWII. His plane, the Green Hornet, crashed into the Pacific in 1943. He survived 47 days on a raft, fighting off sharks and drinking rainwater, only to be captured by the Japanese Navy.
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What followed was two years of systematic torture in POW camps at the hands of a guard nicknamed "The Bird."
Hillenbrand spent seven years writing this. She and Zamperini became incredibly close, speaking on the phone constantly. Louis once said that he had a "hell of a time" telling his story, but because Laura had suffered so much with her own illness, she understood the "inner life" of a prisoner better than any healthy writer ever could.
The detail is staggering. You learn exactly what it sounds like when a B-24 disintegrates. You feel the salt sores. You understand the specific psychological weight of being "unbroken."
Why she hasn't written a "third" book yet
People always ask: "What's next?"
For a long time, the answer was just: survival. Hillenbrand’s health has fluctuated significantly. In 2015, she made a massive move from Washington D.C. to Oregon, a cross-country trip that was a monumental physical feat for her. She has mentioned in past interviews that she was working on something "fun," but she’s notoriously private about her process until it’s perfect.
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She doesn't use research assistants. She doesn't use ghostwriters. Every sentence is hers, crafted with the precision of a jeweler.
The Young Adult Adaptations
While she hasn't released a new adult title, she did oversee young adult versions of her work. Specifically, the YA version of Unbroken (2014) brought Zamperini’s story to a whole new generation. It trims some of the more graphic military technicalities while keeping the emotional gut-punch intact.
How to read her work today
If you’re diving into books written by laura hillenbrand for the first time, don't just skim. These aren't "airport reads" even though they are page-turners.
- Read the New Yorker Essay first: Before the books, read "A Sudden Illness" (2003). It’s her own story. It explains why she writes about "physical paragons" like athletes and soldiers.
- Start with Seabiscuit: It’s a bit lighter than Unbroken and introduces you to her "New Journalism" style where facts read like a novel.
- Listen to the Audiobooks: The narration for both is top-tier. Since Hillenbrand writes with such a rhythmic, "voice-y" quality, they translate perfectly to audio.
The legacy of these books isn't just the history they record. It’s the way they prove that even when your world is small—even if you're confined to a room—your mind can still travel across oceans and through time.
Next Steps for Readers: To truly appreciate the depth of Hillenbrand's research, find a copy of Seabiscuit and look at the bibliography. Then, check out her 2003 essay "A Sudden Illness" to understand the perspective of the woman behind the prose. It changes how you read every single chapter.