Walter Dean Myers
| Walter Dean Myers | |
|---|---|
Myers at the Library of Congress in 2001
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| Born | Walter Milton Myers August 12, 1937 Martinsburg, West Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | July 1, 2014 (aged 76) Manhattan, New York City |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | American |
| Period | 1969–2014 |
| Genre | Young adult novels, nonfiction, poetry |
| Notable works | |
| Notable awards |
Margaret Edwards Award 1994 Michael L. Printz Award 2000 |
| Website | |
| walterdeanmyers |
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Walter Dean Myers (born Walter Milton Myers; August 12, 1937 – July 1, 2014) was an American writer of children's books best known for young adult literature. He wrote more than one hundred books including picture books and nonfiction. He won the Coretta Scott King Award for African-American authors five times. His 1988 novel Fallen Angels is one of the books most frequently challenged in the U.S. because of its adult language and its realistic depiction of the Vietnam War.
Myers was the third U.S. National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, serving 2012 and 2013. He also sat on the Board of Advisors of the Society of Children's Book Writer's and Illustrators (SCBWI).
Walter Milton Myers was born in Martinsburg, West Virginia. After his mother died while giving birth to his younger sister, Myers was given over to Florence Dean, the first wife of his biological father George Myers. Dean raised him in Harlem, New York City, and Myers later took "Dean" as his middle name in honor of his foster parents Florence and Herbert. Herbert Dean was an African-American man and his wife was a part-German and part-Native American woman who taught English at the local high school. Myers' life as a child centered on the neighborhood and the church. The neighborhood protected him and the church guided him. He was smart but did not do that well in school. Suffering from a speech impediment, he cultivated the habit of writing poetry and short stories and acquired an early love of reading. Myers attended Public School 125 on Lasalle Street, before dropping out (although Stuyvesant High School now claims him as a graduate) and joining the U.S. Army on his 17th birthday.
Myers wrote well in high school, which one of his teachers recognized. She also suspected that he would drop out and advised him to keep writing no matter what happened. He did not exactly understand what that meant but years later, while working on a construction job in New York, he remembered her words. Myers would write at night, soon writing about his difficult teenage years. When asked what he valued most, he replied, "My books. They were my only real friends growing up."
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