Walter Dean Myers

Myers, Walter Dean .(b. 1937), poet, editor, and novelist. A versatile and prolific writer, Walter Dean Myers (also Walter M. Myers) has published short fiction, essays, and poetry in such disparate periodicals as the Liberator, Negro Digest, McCall's, Essence, Espionage, and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. He was a regular contributor to men's magazines until, as he says, “they gave themselves up to pornography.” In 1968, he wrote his first children's book as an entry to a contest sponsored by the Council on Interracial Books for Children. He won, Where Does the Day Go? was published by Parent's Magazine Press, and thus began his career as a writer of children's and young adult literature. To date, Myers has published nearly sixty books, many of which have earned awards and citations such as the American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults, the Newbery Honor Book, the Boston Globe>/Horn Book Honor Book, and the Coretta Scott King Award. In 1994, Walter Dean Myers was honored by the American Library Association and School Library Journal with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Myers writes fantasy with black characters (The Golden Serpent, 1980, and The Legend of Tarik, 1981). He retells his father's and grandfather's ghost stories and legends (The Black Pearl and the Ghost, 1980, and Mr. Monkey and the Gotcha Bird, 1984). His adventure tales take black adolescents to Peruvian jungles and Hong Kong temples (The Nicholas Factor, 1983, and The Hidden Shrine, 1985). His nonfiction is often innovative in form and subject matter. In Sweet Illusions (1987), Myers examines pregnancy through the stories of fourteen teenage mothers, fathers, and their friends and relatives. Each chapter ends with blank pages for readers to complete the ending. His biography of Malcolm X(1994) uses actual photographs and inserts from newspapers, interviews, and magazines to create an inspirational and provocative book. Myers pairs poems and commentary to turn-of-the-century photographs of African American children in Brown Angels (1993) and Jacob Lawrence's pictures in The Great Migration (1994).

Walter Dean Myers is best known, however, for his young adult novels about Harlem residents. Like many black writers, Myers loved to read but rarely encountered books about people like him or his friends and family. This desire to fill a void, to create for other youth that which had been lacking in his own adolescence, was further motivated by his displeasure with the prevalent images of African Americans as exotics, misfits, criminals, victims, and “unserious” people. Having grown up in Harlem, he was particularly upset by the negative and monolithic portrayals of that community. Myers's stories usually take place within a Harlem community of diverse people who love, laugh, work, and dream as much as any other people in the world. Though praised for his natural dialogues, his optimistic endings, and his eccentric but loveable characters, Myers does not romanticize. Drugs and violence, loneliness and indifference, sex, religion, economics, and other oppressive and challenging agencies figure into his plots. In It Ain't All for Nothin’ (1978), Tippy's grandmother is put into a nursing home and his ex-convict father involves him in a robbery. Steve's parents in Won't Know Till I Get There (1982) try to rehabilitate a troubled teen only to have their middle-class child and his friends end up in juvenile court. Lonnie Jackson escapes Harlem with an athletic scholarship but the predominantly white midwestern college presents a new set of problems in The Outside Shot (1984). Richie Perry's escape, on the other hand, moves him from the frying pan of Harlem to the fire of Vietnam in Fallen Angels (1989). Myers tends to focus upon male relationships but his female protagonists are neither stereotypical nor predictable. Crystal (1987) presents a sixteen-year-old fashion model and actress whose meteoric rise does not satisfy her. In Motown and Didi: A Love Story (1984), a disciplined and intelligent student's college career is jeopardized by her brother's drug addiction and her mother's mental instability. Each individual works out her or his own destiny, but each comes to recognize and value supportive relationships.

As a member of John O. Killen's writers workshop, Walter Dean Myers practiced his craft with Wesley Brown, George Davis, and Askia M. Touré. When he became an editor at Bobbs-Merrill in 1970, Myers learned not only the business of publishing that helped his own career, but he published fellow writers Nikki Giovanni, Ann Allen Shockley, and Richard Perry. Among the African American writers who served as his literary models, Myers names Frank Yerby and his Harlem neighbor and fellow children's book writer, Langston Hughes. Today, Walter Dean Myers ranks with Virginia Hamilton and Lucille Clifton as the foremost writers in children's and young adult literature.

Bibliography

• Rudine Sims Bishop, Presenting Walter Dean Myers, 1990. Something about the Author, vol. 71, ed. Diane Telgen, 1993, pp. 133–137.
• Karen Patricia Smith, ed. African American Voices in Young Adult Literature: Tradition, Transition, Transformation, 1994.
• Diane Patrick-Wexler, Walter Dean Myers, 1996.
• Terry Novak, “Walter Dean Myers,” in Contemporary African American Novelists, ed., Emmanuel S. Nelson, 1999, pp. 360–365.—Frances Smith Foster

writer

Personal Information

Born Walter Milton Myers, August 12, 1937, in Martinsburg, WV; son of George Ambrose and Mary (Green) Myers; raised from age three by Herbert Julius (a shipping clerk) and Florence (a factory worker) Dean; married second wife, Constance Brendel, June 19, 1973; children: (first marriage) Karen, Michael Dean; (second marriage) Christopher.
Education: Attended State College of the City University of New York; Empire State College, B.A.
Military/Wartime Service: U.S. Army, 1954-57.

Career

New York State Department of Labor, Brooklyn, NY, employment supervisor, 1966-69; Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc., New York City, senior trade book editor, 1970-77; writer, 1977--.

Life's Work

Walter Dean Myers is one of the best known African-American writers in the field of young adult literature. Since the late 1970s, Myers has published more than two dozen novels, all of them for young black readers who seek realistic stories and recognizable characters. In the pages of his books Myers has tackled such pressing issues as teen pregnancy, crime, drug abuse, and gang violence, but he has also examined at length, the ties of family and friendship that exist in black communities everywhere. The author's work has received numerous national honors, including the Coretta Scott King award and the Newbery "honor book" citation. Carmen Subryan noted in the Dictionary of Literary Biography: "Whether he is writing about the ghettos of New York, the remote countries of Africa, or social institutions, Myers captures the essence of the developing experiences of youth."

Myers is best known for his novels that explore the lives of young American blacks, but he is equally adept at producing fairy tales, ghost stories, science fiction, and adventure sagas. Subryan finds a common theme throughout Myers's far-ranging works. "He is concerned with the development of youths," she wrote, "and his message is always the same: young people must face the reality of growing up and must persevere, knowing that they can succeed despite any odds they face." In her work Presenting Walter Dean Myers, Rudine Sims Bishop maintained that the author "writes of love and laughter and offers compassion and hope. He writes of the need to find strength within oneself and of the possibility of finding strength within the group, whether the group is the family, the peer group, or the community."

Walter Milton Myers was born in Martinsburg, West Virginia, in 1937. Before he turned three years old, his mother died, leaving the family in chaos. In an essay for Something About the Author (SATA) Autobiography Series, Myers wrote: "Hard times are common in West Virginia. When my mother died, my father was left to care for Imogene, myself, my brothers Douglas and George, and my sisters Geraldine, Ethel, Viola, and Gertrude." The situation quickly became impossible for Myers's father, but fate intervened. "Extended families are common among poor people," Myers recalled. "If a family is experiencing difficulty it is not out of the ordinary for another family, faring only slightly better, to take in one or more of the first family's children. Herbert and Florence Dean took me to raise."

Herbert and Florence Dean, a hard-working couple with children of their own, became foster parents to Walter and two of his sisters. They all moved to the Harlem district of New York City, and both of the Deans found blue-collar jobs to support the children. Since Walter had been little more than a toddler when his mother died, he soon forgot the family tragedy and accepted the Dean household as his own. In turn, his foster parents treated him kindly. His new mother enjoyed hearing him read out loud, and his new father delighted in telling him scary stories--and sometimes acting them out as well. Myers's elementary school was integrated, and he grew up with Irish and Jewish friends.

Myers faced some difficulties in childhood, however. He was plagued by a speech impediment, and other youngsters teased him about it. Speaking in front of a class was particularly difficult for Myers, until one of his teachers suggested that he could write something of his own to read out loud. "I began writing poems so that I could avoid the words that I could not pronounce," the author recalled in his SATA Autobiography Series essay. Myers discovered that he loved to write, and soon he was filling notebooks with handwritten stories, poetry, and journal entries. Ideas for his own work came from a variety of sources--from the literature taught in his classrooms to the comic books he bought at the newsstand.

The fascination with words was a mixed blessing. Myers was classified as a "bright" student in school and was steered toward college-preparation courses. He won several awards--including a set of encyclopedias--for his essays and poetry, but frustration set in as his family made light of his academic achievements and encouraged him to be realistic about his future. "I was from a family of laborers, and the idea of writing stories or essays was far removed from their experience," Myers clarified in SATA Autobiography Series. "Writing had no practical value for a black child.... Minor victories did not bolster my ego. Instead they convinced me that even though I might have some talent, I was still defined by factors other than my ability."

Although he thought he would never go to college, Myers continued writing. He bought a used typewriter with money he earned at a part-time job, and he read several books each week. At the age of 17 he joined the army, still convinced that writing would be only a lifetime hobby. After three years of military service he was able to pay part of his college tuition with money from the G.I. Bill. He earned a bachelor's degree, married, and supported a family with a succession of jobs. Occasionally a periodical such as The Liberator or Negro Digest would publish one of his pieces. Myers was struggling to find himself and to determine his future. At last, he told in his SATA Autobiography Series essay, he made a choice. "I decided that what I wanted to do with myself was to become a writer and live what I imagined would be the life of the writer, whatever that might be."

By 1970 Myers's marriage had ended, a victim of his years of self-discovery. He was, however, beginning to make strides toward his goal of becoming a professional writer. In 1969 he published his first book, Where Does the Day Go? A picture book for children, Where Does the Day Go? features a group of children from several ethnic backgrounds who discuss their ideas about night and day with a sensitive and wise black father during a long walk. The book won a contest sponsored by the Council on Interracial Books for Children. It also established Walter M. Myers--who would shortly change his name to honor his adopted parents--as an author addressing the needs of minority children who had too long been overlooked by the American publishing industry.

As the 1970s progressed, Myers worked as a senior editor for the Bobbs-Merrill publishing house. He also released more picture books and began writing the young adult novels for which he has become famous. Among his earliest fiction for teens were the books Fast Sam, Cool Clyde, and Stuff and Mojo and the Russians. Both tales feature, in Subryan's words, adventures depicting "the learning experiences of most youths growing up in a big city where negative influences abound." Central to these and subsequent Walter Dean Myers stories is the concept of close friendships as a positive, nurturing influence, as well as the healing and strengthening power of humor. Drawing upon his own youthful experiences and the stories told him by his foster father, Myers has presented characters for whom urban life is an uplifting experience despite the dangers and disappointments lurking in the streets.

Myers did not necessarily set out to become a writer with a "mission," but that is the way it turned out for him. As he began creating his own characters, he realized that he was reacting against the literature he had grown up reading--the books of his era which, if they featured blacks at all, portrayed them as idiots or buffoons. "I was ... gaining an awareness of the black image in literature, film, and television," the author remembered in the SATA Autobiography Series. "The image was disturbing. Blacks were portrayed as nonserious people. Perhaps we were sports figures, or hustlers, or comedians, but we were still nonserious. Remembering my own childhood, I realized what an effect that had on the black child. I hadn't been aware of feelings of inadequacy or the derivation of those feelings when I was a child. But I could see that I did feel inadequate as a black person. Everyone presented to me when I was a child--presidents, inventors, writers, composers--had been white.... The message was that even the best of the blacks were somehow fatally flawed.... And so I have come to understand one of my roles, newly found and cautiously approached, but there nevertheless. As my books for teenagers gained in popularity I sensed that my soul-searching for my place in the artistic world was taking on an added dimension. As a black writer I had not only the personal desire to find myself, but the obligation to use my abilities to fill a void."

Myers has been fulfilling that obligation as a full-time writer for more than a decade. Books such as The Young Landlords and Sweet Illusions tell the stories of teenagers faced with adult responsibilities. Hoops and The Outside Shot offer realistic treatments of the place of sports in young people's lives. It Ain't All for Nothin', Won't Know Till I Get There, and Scorpions, among others, show young adult characters who overcome the lure of crime and drugs or the pain of broken families. In his SATA Autobiography Series essay, Myers wrote: "I have a younger brother, Horace, who teaches in the New York City school system. When he asked me to come and speak to his class, I realized how few resources are available for black youngsters to open the world to them. I feel the need to show them the possibilities that exist for them that were never revealed to me as a youngster; possibilities that did not even exist for me then."

Today Myers is a respected elder statesman in the young adult literature market, an author who commands an audience that crosses all racial and economic lines. His commitment to providing quality literature for black children about black children has led him into the realms of fairy tale, fable, and science fiction, and he makes numerous personal appearances at schools and conventions to discuss his work and to encourage other writers to persevere. Myers's books have won a variety of awards, most notably the Coretta Scott King Award and the prestigious Newbery "honor book" citation (for Scorpions ). Myers, who lives with his second wife in New Jersey, is a frequent traveler to Europe, South America, Africa, and the Far East. When he is home, he tries to write ten pages per day, and he may have several projects in motion at one time.

Reflecting on his career in his SATA Autobiography Series piece, Myers concluded: "As a black writer I want to talk about my people. I want to tell the reader about an old black man I knew who told me he was God. I want to tell a reader how a blind man feels when he hears that he is not wanted because he is black. I want to tell black children about their humanity and about their history and how to grease their legs so the ash won't show and how to braid their hair so it's easy to comb on frosty winter mornings.... The books come. They pour from me at a great rate. I can't see how any writer can ever stop. There is always one more story to tell, one more person whose life needs to be held up to the sun."

Awards

Council on Interracial Books for Children Award, 1968, for Where Does the Day Go?; American Library Association's "Best books for young adults" citations, 1978, for It Ain't All for Nothin', 1979, for The Young Landlords, and 1982, for Hoops; Coretta Scott King awards, 1980, for The Young Landlords, 1984, for Motown and Didi: A Love Story, and 1991 for Now Is Your Time!: The African-American Struggle for Freedom; Notable Children's Trade Book in Social Studies citation, 1982, for The Legend of Tarik; Newbery "honor book" citation, 1989, for Scorpions.

Works

Writings

• (as Walter M. Myers) Where Does the Day Go?, illustrated by Leo Carty, Parents' Magazine Press, 1969.
• The Dancers, illustrated by Anne Rockwell, Parents' Magazine Press, 1972.
• The Dragon Takes a Wife, illustrated by Ann Grifalconi, Bobbs-Merrill, 1972.
• Fly, Jimmy, Fly!, illustrated by Moneta Barnett, Putnam, 1974.
• Fast Sam, Cool Clyde, and Stuff, Viking, 1975.
• The World of Work: A Guide to Choosing a Career, Bobbs-Merrill, 1975.
• Social Welfare, F. Watts, 1976.
• Brainstorm, with photographs by Chuck Freedman, F. Watts, 1977.
• Victory for Jamie, Scholastic Book Services, 1977.
• It Ain't All for Nothin', Viking, 1978.
• The Young Landlords, Viking, 1979.
• The Black Pearl and the Ghost; or, One Mystery after Another, illustrated by Robert Quackenbush, Viking, 1980.
• The Golden Serpent, illustrated by Alice Provensen and Martin Provensen, Viking, 1980.
• Hoops, Delacorte, 1981.
• The Legend of Tarik, Viking, 1981.
• Won't Know Till I Get There, Viking, 1982.
• The Nicholas Factor, Viking, 1983.
• Tales of a Dead King, Morrow, 1983.
• Mr. Monkey and the Gotcha Bird, illustrated by Leslie Morrill, Delacorte, 1984.
• Motown and Didi: A Love Story, Viking, 1984.
• The Outside Shot, Delacorte, 1984.
• Sweet Illusions, Teachers & Writers Collaborative, 1986.
• Crystal, Viking, 1987.
• Shadow of the Red Moon, Harper, 1987.
• Fallen Angels, Scholastic, Inc., 1988.
• Me, Mop, and the Moondance Kid, Delacorte, 1988.
• Scorpions, Harper, 1988.
• The Mouse Rap, Harper & Row, 1990.
• Now Is Your Time!: The African American Struggle for Freedom, HarperCollins, 1991.
• Mop, Moondance, and the Nagasaki Knights, Delacorte Press, 1992.
• A Place Called Heartbreak: A Story of Vietnam, illustrated by Frederick Porter, Raintree Steck-Vaughn, 1992.
• The Righteous Revenge of Artemis Bonner, HarperCollins, 1992.
• Somewhere in the Darkness, Scholastic, 1992.
• Young Martin's Promise, Raintree Steck-Vaughn, 1992.
• Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary, Scholastic, 1993.

• Adventure in Granada, Viking, 1985.
• The Hidden Shrine, Viking, 1985.
• Ambush in the Amazon, Viking, 1986.
• Duel in the Desert, Viking, 1986.

• Orde Coombs, editor, What We Must See: Young Black Storytellers, Dodd, 1971.
• Sonia Sanchez, editor, We Be Word Sorcerers: Twenty-five Stories by Black Americans, Bantam, 1973.

Further Reading

Books

• Bishop, Rudine Sims, Presenting Walter Dean Myers, Twayne, 1990.
• Black Literature Criticism, Volume 3, Gale, 1992, pp. 1469-81.
• Children's Literature Review, Volume 4, Gale, 1982.
• Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 35, Gale, 1985.
• Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 33: Afro-American Fiction Writers after 1955, Gale, 1984, pp. 199-202.
• Rush, Theresa G., editor, Black American Writers: Past and Present, Scarecrow Press, 1975.
• Something About the Author, Volume 71, Gale, 1993, pp. 133-37.
• Something About the Author Autobiography Series, Volume 2, Gale, 1986, pp. 143-56.

• Chicago Tribune, June 1, 1993, section 7, p. 1.
• Ebony, September 1975.
• New York Times Book Review, November 9, 1986, p. 50.

— Anne Janette Johnson

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)