Walter Dean Myers

Walter Dean Myers, a prolific author of books for children and young adults, was born Walter Milton Myers on August 12, 1937, in Martinsburg, West Virginia. After his mother died when he was two years old, he went to live with family friends, the Deans, in New York City's Harlem neighborhood. Myers was an avid reader with a speech impediment who got into fights with those who teased him. Despite becoming involved in street life and essentially dropping out of high school by his senior year in 1954, Myers was inspired by a teacher who encouraged his writing. He graduated from Empire State College in 1984.

After serving in the army and working as a book editor, Myers focused on writing full time beginning in 1977. Drawing on his own childhood experiences in Harlem, Myers began publishing picture books in the late 1960s and early 1970s before focusing on...