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): Ben Sealey • Benjamin Sheares • Dale Bumpers • Dana Ivey • Danny Graham (footballer) • Ewa Farna • Jim Schlossnagle • Juhan Simm • Jürgen Dehmel • Karl Faber • Maggie Lawson • Martha Hedman • Marvin Zeegelaar • Percy Mayfield • Pete Sampras • Porter Wagoner • Samuel Fuller • Tedd Pierce • Yusof Ishak

Born in the same month (August 1937): Al D'Amato • Alice Coltrane • Anatoly Sobchak • Anna Massey • Billy Cannon • Boris Rõtov • Charlie Haden • Donald Dewar • Jimmy Hannan • María Duval • Patrick Joseph McGovern • Robert Stone (novelist) • Sheila Varian • Sky Saxon • Zoltán Berczik