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James Hilton (1900-1954, from cirrhosis of the liver aged 53) was a popular English novelist of the first half of the 20th century.
Hilton was born in Lancashire, England, and found literary success at an early age, his first novel, Catherine Herself, having been published in 1920. Several of his books found a new audience through film adaptations, notably Lost Horizon (1933), which won a Hawthornden Prize, Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1934), and Random Harvest (1941).
Hilton won an Oscar (1942) for his work on the screenplay of Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther (Joyce Maxtone Graham).
Hilton popularised the term Shangri-La in his novel Lost Horizon. The then US President Roosevelt quickly named his presidential retreat Shangri-La. The word has become a byword for a mythical utopia - a permanently happy land, isolated from the world.
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