Stephen Hunter (born March 25, 1946, inKansas City, Missouri) is an American novelist, essayist, andfilm critic.

Hunter was born inKansas City, Missouri, and grew up inEvanston, Illinois. His father was Charles Francis Hunter, aNorthwestern 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 theUnited States Army. He served in the3rd 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 theTomb of the Unknown Soldier. He also wrote for a military paper, thePentagon News.^[2]

He joinedThe Baltimore Sun in 1971, working at thecopy desk of the newspaper's Sunday edition for a decade. He became its film critic in 1982, a post he held until moving toThe Washington Post in the same function in 1997. In 1998 Hunter won theAmerican Society of Newspaper Editors Distinguished Writing Award in the criticism category, and in 2003 he received thePulitzer Prize for Criticism.^[2] He accepted a buyout from thePost in 2008.^[3]

Hunter's thriller novels includePoint of Impact (filmed asShooter),Black Light andTime to Hunt, which form a trilogy featuringVietnam War veteran andsniperBob "the Nailer" Swagger. The story of Bob Lee Swagger continued withThe 47th Samurai (2007),Night of Thunder (2008),I, Sniper (2009),Dead Zero (2010),The Third Bullet (2013),Sniper's Honor (2014) andG-Man (2017). The series has led to two spin-off series:Hot Springs,Pale Horse Coming, andHavana form another trilogy centered on Bob Swagger's father, Earl Swagger, whileSoft Target (2011) focuses on Bob's long-unknown son, Ray Cruz.

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 atThe Sun;American Gunfight (2005), an examination of the November 1, 1950attempted assassination of Harry S. Truman; andNow Playing at the Valencia (2005), a collection of pieces fromThe Washington Post. Hunter has also written a number of non-film-related articles forThe 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 afirearms 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."^[5]

In an interview withNPR on February 16, 2011, Hunter defended the public availability of high-capacitymagazines after theshooting of Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others. He also said that it was not clear whether the 33-round magazine used by shooterJared Lee Loughner played a part in the shooting.^[5] He had previously written inThe Washington Post that extended magazines are particularly valuable to women and the elderly, who he said could use them effectively in 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]

Bob Lee Swagger series:

1. Point of Impact (1993)
2. Black Light (1996)
3. Time to Hunt (1998)
4. The 47th Samurai (2007)
5. Night of Thunder (2008)
6. I, Sniper (2009)
7. Dead Zero (2010)
8. The Third Bullet (2013)
9. Sniper's Honor (2014)
10. G-Man (2017)
11. Game of Snipers (2019)
12. Targeted (2022)

• Dirty White Boys (1994), prequel to events inBlack Light

Earl Swagger series:

1. Hot Springs (2000)
2. Pale Horse Coming (2001)
3. Havana (2003)
4. The Bullet Garden (January 24, 2023^[7])

Ray Cruz series:

1. Dead Zero (2010)
2. Soft Target (2011)

Stand-alones:

• The Master Sniper (1980)
• The Second Saladin (1982)
• Target (1985), novelization of filmTarget
• The Spanish Gambit (reissued asTapestry of Spies) (1985)
• The Day Before Midnight (1989)
• I, Ripper (2015)
• Basil's War (2021)

• "Casey at the Bat" (2010) (inAgents of Treachery, edited byOtto Penzler)

• 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

• 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

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from June 2022