His post-Army days found him without direction, facing family dysfunction and despair until he began concentrating on his writing. Myers dropped out of the elite Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, New York and joined the Army on his 17th birthday due to a lack of discipline and the realization he could not afford college. Myers changed his name from Walter Milton Myers to Walter Dean Myers in honor of his foster parents. He was raised by his father’s first wife and her husband, Florence and Herbert Dean. His father, George Myers, sent him to Harlem, New York in 1939 following the death of his mother, Mary Myers. Myers was born in Martinsburg, West Virginia on August 12, 1937, where he lived with his parents and four siblings until the age of eighteen months. The New York Times best-selling author is best known for authentically portraying African American youth facing tough life choices. He was a tireless advocate of literacy and education who also promoted diversity in children’s literature. Walter Dean Myers was a critically acclaimed African American children’s author of award-winning fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
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