Walter Dean Myers

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Walter Dean Myers (born Walter Myers August 12, 1937, 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 five 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.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Myers' mother died when he was only three years old. He has little memory of her, since he was so young. 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 Stuyvesant 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 College. He married his wife Joyce in 1960 and had two children before the family dissolved in a divorce.

[edit] The Writer

After dropping out of high school, Myers joined the Army.This experience helped inform the writing of 1989's Fallen Angels, one of his most controversial and enduring books.Upon being discharged from the Army, Myers returned to New York where he worked loading trucks and in the post office while writing at night. Eventually, he entered and won a 1969 contest sponsored by the Council on Interracial Books for Children, which led to his first book for children, Where Does The Day Go? being published. His career begin in earnest, however, when he began writing books for young adults.

In 1975, Myers published Fast Sam, Cool Clyde and Stuff, which was one of the first novels in the burgeoning genre known as "young adult literature." More so, it was one of the first books to deal with African-American characters in an urban setting. Myers would continue to write young adult realistic fiction throughout his career, helping shape the genre as a whole.

Myers has also published numerous volumes of poetry and a vast array of non-fiction works dealing with the African-American experience through out history. Exploring everything from the accomplishments of Muhammad Ali to the struggle for freedom in Haiti, Myers brought to his non-fiction work the same attention to detail and rich language that characterizes his novels.

He continues to publish and receive honors, such as the 2006 title Jazz, which was an 2007 ALA Children's Notable Book and was illustrated by his son, Christopher Myers.


[edit] Published works

Three of his best known works are Fallen Angels (1988), The Glory Field (1994 short story collection), and Monster (1999). Myers has produced young adult literature, 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.

[edit] Bibliography

It should be noted that most of Myers' works are based on his old neighborhood in Harlem, New York. He deals with the struggling urban teen, often depicting gang life, drug use, violence, and dealing with peers and peer pressure when one has found a way out. Myers generally writes about what he knows and has experienced.

  • Hoops (1983) - A promising basketball player tries not to end up like his former pro playing coach.
  • The Outside Shot (1986) - A Harlem talent goes to college for basketball.
  • Crystal (1987) A girl's life when she becomes a model.
  • Fast Sam, Cool Clyde, and Stuff (1988)
  • Fallen Angels (1988): Young men in the army and their experiences in Vietnam
  • Won't Know 'Til I Get There (1988)
  • The Young Landlords (1989) - A group of kids take over an apartment building and then struggles to keep it up.
  • Scorpions (1990) - a 12 year old is asked to lead his brother's gang
  • The Mouse Rap (1990) - A fourteen year old is determined to find the loot from a '30s bank heist.
  • The Righteous Revenge of Artemis Bonner (1994) - a 12 year old boy goes after a man that murdered his uncle.
  • The Glory Field (1994)
  • Slam (1998) - Young black teen with an attitude problem deals with life on and off the basketball court.
  • Monster (1999) A 16 year-old black boy is charged with murder.
  • 145th Street: Short Stories (2001)
  • Greatest: Muhammad Ali (2001)
  • Bad Boy; A Memoir (2002) - a part of the Amistad Series, it is Myers life stories as a young boy growing up in 1940's Harlem.
  • Handbook for Boys: A Novel (2003)
  • It Ain't All for Nothin (2003)
  • Somewhere in the Darkness (2003)
  • Thanks & Giving: All year long (2004)
  • Shooter (2005) - A school shooting leaves two friends of the shooter documenting what they know to the police.
  • Beast (2003)
  • Autobiography of My Dead Brother (2005)
  • Street Love (2006)
  • What They Found: Love on 145th Street (2007)
  • Harlem Summer (2007)
  • Game (2008)

[edit] Awards & Honors

Myers is the 1994 recipient of the ALA's Margaret A. Edwards Award for "lifetime contribution to young adult literature." (The titles cited for the Edwards Award were Hoops, Motown and Didi, Fallen Angels, and Scorpions.) Myers is a two-time Newbery Honor award winner for: Scorpions (1988) and Somewhere in the Darkness (1992). He is a five-time recipient of the Coretta Scott King Award for: The Young Landlords (1980), Motown and Didi: A Love Story (1985), Fallen Angels (1989), Now is Your Time: the African American Struggle for Freedom (1992), and Slam! (1997). Myers is also a two-time National Book Award Finalist for: Monster (1999) and Autobiography of My Dead Brother (2005). Among its many honors, Monster (1999) was the first-ever recipient of the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature.

[edit] Referred to in other works

Myers is mentioned 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