| William H. Armstrong | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 14, 1911 Lexington, Virginia |
| Died | April 11, 1999 Kent, Connecticut |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | United States |
| Notable work(s) | Sounder |
| Notable award(s) | Newbery Medal |
William H. Armstrong (September 14, 1911 near Lexington, Virginia - April 11, 1999 in Kent, Connecticut) was an American children's author and educator, best known for his 1969 Newbery Medal-winning novel, Sounder.
After growing up on a farm near Lexington he graduated cum laude from Hampden-Sydney College in 1936, then continued his higher education with graduate work at the University of Virginia. In 1945, he became a history master at Kent School in Kent, Connecticut, where he remained for fifty-two years, teaching general studies and ancient history to generations of third formers (ninth graders).
Armstrong was loved, admired, and feared by his students. A truly formidable character and head of "study hall", he suffered no fools lightly. More than once he was known to send a text book flying across the classroom with unerring accuracy to awaken one inattentive student or another.
In 1956, at the request of his school headmaster, he published his first book, a study guide called Study Is Hard Work. Armstrong followed this title with numerous other self-help books, and in 1963 he was awarded the National School Bell Award of the National Association of School Administrators for distinguished service in the interpretation of education.
In 1969, Armstrong published his masterpiece, a short novel entitled Sounder about a 19th century African-American sharecropper family. Praised by critics, Sounder won the John Newbery Medal and the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1970, and was adapted into a major motion picture in 1972 starring Paul Winfield and Cicely Tyson. Despite its success, it was criticized by some African-Americans because they claimed that a white writer couldn't really understand their experience.
Among his other novels are The Sour Land which is a sequel to Sounder, though not labeled as such, The Mills of God and The MacLeod Place, the story of a multi-generational family farm displaced by the construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
By the mid 1970s, enriched by earnings from Sounder, among other works, Armstrong was thoroughly ensconced in Kent School. He raised sheep for passover on a beautiful hillside piece of property provided by the school and reportedly only charged Kent one dollar per year for his academic services.
He continued to be prolific in his writing output, mainly publishing books with historical or biblical main characters, such as Hadassah: Esther the Orphan Queen (1972) and The Education of Abraham Lincoln (1974).
Armstrong was rewarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Hampden-Sydney College in 1986.
He died in 1999 at his home in Kent, Connecticut at the age of 87.[1]
His Newbery Medal currently resides in the William Armstrong children's book section at Bortz Library at Armstrong's alma mater Hampden-Sydney College.