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Betsy Byars

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Betsy Byars
BornBetsy Cromer
(1928-08-07) August 7, 1928 (age 96)
Charlotte, North Carolina, US
OccupationChildren's author, novelist, freelance writer
Education
Period1962–present
GenreChildren's fiction, Young-adult fiction, Historical fiction, Realistic fiction
Notable works
Notable awardsNewbery Medal
1971
National Book Award
1981
Website
www.betsybyars.com

Betsy Cromer Byars (born August 7, 1928) is an American author of children's books. Her novel Summer of the Swans won the 1971 Newbery Medal.[1] She has also received a National Book Award in category Children's Fiction for The Night Swimmers (1980)[2] and an Edgar Award for Wanted ... Mud Blossom (1991).

Byars has been called "one of the ten best writers for children in the world" by Nancy Chambers, editor of the British literary journal Signal,[3] and in 1987 Byars received the Regina Medal for lifetime achievement from the Catholic Library Association.[4] Due to the popularity of her books with children, she has also been listed as one of the Educational Paperback Association's top 100 authors.[5]

Life

Byars was born Betsy Cromer August 7, 1928, in Charlotte, North Carolina to George Guy, a cotton mill executive, and Nan (née Rugheimer) Cromer, a homemaker.[5] Her early childhood was spent during the Great Depression. She attended Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, from 1946 to 1948, before transferring to Queens College in Charlotte, where she graduated in 1950 with a bachelor's degree in English.[5]

After graduating, Cromer met Edward Ford Byars, a graduate student in engineering at Clemson University, and they married on June 24, 1950. They had three daughters and a son between 1951 and 1958: Laurie, Betsy Ann, Nan, and Guy.[5] In 1956, the family moved from Clemson, South Carolina to Urbana, Illinois where Edward pursued further graduate work at the University of Illinois, eventually becoming a professor of engineering.[5] While her husband was busy during the day with his studies, Betsy began writing for magazines. Her work was eventually featured in The Saturday Evening Post, Look, Everywoman's Magazine, and TV Guide. Her first novel, Clementine, was published in 1962.[5][6]

Betsy and Ed Byars are both licensed aircraft pilots and live on an airstrip in Seneca, South Carolina, the bottom floor of their house being a hangar.[1]

Daughters Betsy Duffey and Laurie Myers are also children's writers, and the three of them are currently (as of February 2009) working on their fourth book together.[7]

Works

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  • 1962 Clementine
  • 1965 The Dancing Camel
  • 1966 Rama, the Gypsy Cat
  • 1967 The Goober
  • 1968 The Midnight Fox
  • 1970 Summer of the Swans
  • 1971 Go and Hush the Baby
  • 1972 The House of Wings
  • 1973 The Eighteenth Emergency —winner of the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award
  • 1974 After the Goat Man
  • 1976 The TV Kid'
  • 1977 The Pinballs
  • 1978 The Cartoonist
  • 1978 The Winged Colt of Casa Mia
  • 1979 Good-bye, Chicken Little
  • 1979 Trouble River
  • 1980 The Night Swimmers —National Book Award, Children's Fiction[2]
  • 1981 The Cybil War
  • 1982 The Animal, The Vegetable, and John D. Jones
  • 1982 The Two-Thousand-Pound Goldfish
  • 1983 The Glory Girl
  • 1984 The Computer Nut
  • 1985 Cracker Jackson ISBN 0-670-80546-7
  • 1991 The Seven Treasure Hunts
  • 1992 Coast to Coast
  • 1993 McMummy
  • 1995 Growing Up Stories
  • 1996 The Joy Boys
  • 1996 Tornado (illustrated by Doron Ben-Ami)
  • 2000 Me Tarzan
  • 2002 Keeper of the Doves
  • 2004 Top Teen Stories (contribution)
  • 2006 Boo's Dinosaur

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Series

Ant
  • 1996 My Brother, Ant
  • 1997 Ant Plays Bear
Bingo Brown
  • 1988 The Burning Questions of Bingo Brown
  • 1991 Bingo Brown and the Language of Love
  • 1992 Bingo Brown, Gypsy Lover
  • 1992 Bingo Brown's Guide to Romance
Blossom Family
  • 1986 The Not-Just-Anybody Family
  • 1986 The Blossoms Meet the Vulture Lady
  • 1987 The Blossoms and the Green Phantom
  • 1987 A Blossom Promise
  • 1991 Wanted...Mud Blossom
Golly Sisters
  • 1985 The Golly Sisters Go West
  • 1990 Hooray for the Golly Sisters
  • 1994 The Golly Sisters Ride Again"
Herculeah Jones
  • 1994 The Dark Stairs
  • 1995 Tarot Says Beware
  • 1996 Dead Letter
  • 1997 Death's Door
  • 1998 Disappearing Acts
  • 2006 King of Murder
  • 2006 The Black Tower

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Collaborations with daughters Betsy Duffey and Laurie Myers

  • 2000 My Dog, My Hero
  • 2004 The SOS File
  • 2007 Dog Diaries
  • 2010 Cat Diaries

Memoir

  • 1991 The Moon and I


Short Stories

  • Look back at the sea

References

  1. ^ a b Author's website
  2. ^ a b "National Book Awards – 1981". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-02-27.
  3. ^ Kuznets, Lois R. (1981). "Betsy Byars' Slice of 'American Pie'". Children's Literature Association Quarterly. 5 (4). Johns Hopkins University Press: 31–33. doi:10.1353/chq.0.1857.
  4. ^ "Regina Medal". Catholic Library Association. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  5. ^ a b c d e f "Byars, Betsy". EBMA's Top 100 Authors. Educational Paperback Association. Retrieved 20 May 2011.
  6. ^ Autobiography from author's website.
  7. ^ "Children's author Byars tells her own tale". Reuters. February 11, 2009.
Citations
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Betsy_Byars&oldid=744361978"