The winners must be published in English by a U.S. In 1984, he established the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, an award of $5,000 that recognizes outstanding works of historical fiction. His first children's book was Island of the Blue Dolphins. In the late 1950s, he began writing children's books. In 1934, O'Dell began writing articles as well as fiction and nonfiction books for adults. His wives were Jane Dorsa Rattenbury, and Elizabeth Hall. Before becoming a full-time writer, he was employed as a cameraman and technical director, as a book columnist for the Los Angeles Mirror, and as book review editor for the Los Angeles Daily News. During World War II, he served in the United States Army Air Forces.

He attended multiple colleges, including Occidental College in 1919, the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1920, Stanford University in 1921, and the Sapienza University of Rome in 1925.

He was born on Terminal Island in Los Angeles, California, to parents May Elizabeth Gabriel and Bennett Mason Scott. Scott O'Dell was born O'Dell Gabriel Scott, but after his name was incorrectly published on a book as 'Scott O'Dell', he decided to keep the name. He was one of the annual Newbery runners-up for three other books: The King's Fifth (1966), The Black Pearl (1967), and Sing Down the Moon (1970). It was also named to the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award list. O'Dell's best known work is the historical novel Island of the Blue Dolphins (1960), which won the 1961 Newbery Medal and the 1963 Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in its German translation. He received The University of Southern Mississippi Medallion in 1976 and the Catholic Libraries Association Regina Medal in 1978. For his contribution as a children's writer he received the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1972, the highest recognition available to creators of children's books. He wrote historical fiction, primarily, including several children's novels about historical California and Mexico. Scott O'Dell (– October 15, 1989) was an American writer of 26 novels for young people, along with three novels for adults and four nonfiction books.

The Captive by Scott O'Dell