Walter Dean Myers

Walter Dean Myers was an American writer of children's books best known for young adult literature. He was born in Martinsburg, West Virginia, but was raised in Harlem, New York City. A tough childhood led him to writing and his school teachers would encourage him in this habit as a way to express himself. He wrote more than one hundred books including picture books and nonfiction. He won the Coretta Scott King Award for African-American authors five times. His 1988 novel Fallen Angels is one of the books most frequently challenged in the U.S. because of its adult language and its realistic depiction of the Vietnam War.

12 August 1937

Born on the same birth day (12 August): Alex Naumik • Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia • Charles Blackman • Dana Ivey • Donald Justice • Dream (YouTuber) • George Wetherill • Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt • Jesinta Franklin • Karl Stefanovic • Matt Gillett • Panagiotis Chinofotis • Robert Southey • Sam Hoare (rugby league) • Samuel Fuller • Tanita Tikaram • Thorsten Boer

Born in the same month (August 1937): Al D'Amato • Alice Coltrane • Anatoly Sobchak • Bobby Parker (guitarist) • Don Bowman (singer) • Dustin Hoffman • Gustavo Noboa • Herb Brooks • Moshood Abiola • Ron Brierley • Stelvio Cipriani • Warren Berlinger