Walter Dean Myers, Author Whose Gritty Tales Spoke to Youths, Is Dead at 76
Source: NY Times
Walter Dean Myers, whose realistic portrayal of the struggles of youths in the city made him a best-selling children’s book author, and who was an evangelist for literacy and education, died on Tuesday in Manhattan. He was 76.
His publisher, HarperCollins, said he died at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan after a brief illness.
A onetime troublemaker who dropped out of high school, Mr. Myers spent much of his adult life writing realistic and accessible stories about crime, war and life in the streets. He wrote more than 100 books, including “Monster” and “Lockdown,” and was the rare author to have a wide following among middle-school boys.
He was a three-time National Book Award nominee, received five Coretta Scott King awards for African-American fiction and from 2012 to 2013 served as national ambassador for young people’s literature, a position created in part by the Library of Congress.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/03/nyregion/walter-dean-myers-author-whose-gritty-tales-spoke-to-youths-in-cities-is-dead-at-76.html
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