Walter Dean Myers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Walter Dean Myers (born Walter Myers August 12, 1937, Martinsburg, West Virginia, raised in Harlem) is an African American author of young adult literature. Myers has written dozens of books, including novels and non-fiction works. He has won the Coretta Scott King Award for African American authors four times. One of these books, Fallen Angels, has made the American Library Association's list of frequently challenged books, due to rough language and its depiction of the Vietnam War.
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[edit] Early life
Mydied when he was only three years old. He was raised as a foster child by the Dean family, so he took their last name as part of his own. The Dean family took him to Harlem, where he grew to be an avid reader. Though he had a happy childhood, Myers understood that his foster family would not be able to send him to college, so he dropped out of high school and joined the Army instead . After being discharged, Myers took some courses at the City College of the City University of New York by working in a series of jobs and went to Empire State Collge. He married his wife Joyce in 1960 and had two children before the family dissolved in divorce.
[edit] Writing life
Myers began writing, using a typewriter his foster father gave him to produce Where Does the Day Go?, a children's picture book that went on to win a contest run by the Council on Interracial Books for Children in 1969. He remarried to Constance Brendel, had two more children, and left publishing in 1977 to become a more prolific writer.
[edit] Main body of work
Myers has produced young adult literature ever since, as well as essays, A Place Called Heartbreak: A Story of Vietnam, At Her Majesty's Request: An African Princess in Victorian England and the biography Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary. Three of his best known novels are Fallen Angels (1988), The Glory Field (1994), and Monster (1999).
[edit] Referred to in other works
Myers is mentioned prnently in Sharon Creech's 2001 poetic novella Love That Dog, in which a young boy admires Myers and invites the poet to visit his class.
[edit] External links
- Terry Novak, Johnson & Wales University. "Walter Dean Myers." The Literary Encyclopedia. 24 January 2002. http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3280
- A Walter Dean Myers page
