Author Biographies
This glossary contains short biographical sketches about the authors of the novels and selections read in Mr. Anderson's classes.
Browse the glossary using this index
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Beals, Melba Pattillo | |||
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As a teenager, Melba Beals was caught up in a civil rights
firestorm. After the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision,
Beals was hopeful that she could attend the prestigious Little Rock
Central High School. When a federal judge ordered Centtal High to
desegregate in 1957 the NAACP recruited Beals and other black teens
for this difficult task. Angry mobs blocked the black students from
entering the high school, resulting in a three-week standoff
between students and segregationists. President Eisenhower had to
send troops to escort the black students into the school and force
integration. Even with this protection, Beals and the other black
students had to endure slurs, fights, and physical abuse as part of
the first integrated class at Central High. In a later interview
about her experiences, Beals noted that she wanted to attend
Central for the educational opportunities, not to be the first to
integrate. As a result other experience, Beals learned to relate to
the media and pursued a career in journalism. After receiving a
Masters degree in journalism from Columbia University, Beals worked
as a news reporter in California. Her novels Warriors Don’t Cry: A Searing Memoir of the
Battle to Integrate Little Rock Central High School and
White Is a State of Mind
were influential works describing the desegregation of public
schools. In 1999 the nine students who integrated LRHS were awarded
the Congressional Gold Medal, the
highest civilian honor in the United States. | |||
Cannon, Angie | |||
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After receiving her Masters degree in journalism, Angie Cannon
started her career as a staff writer at the Miami Herald. She then moved to the
San Francisco Chronicle,
where she covered education, and The Detroit News, where she reported on
city government. Following these newspaper jobs, Cannon covered the
White House and then the Justice Department for the Knight-Ridder
Washington bureau. In 1998 Cannon became a senior writer for U.S.
News and World Report, where she covered national legal, political,
criminal, and social issues. In 2003. with help from fellow writers
at U.S. News, Cannon
co-wrote 23 Days of Terror,
a reflection on the Washington, D.C. sniper shootings. | |||
Cohen, Warren | |||
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After receiving a BA from Connecticut College in 1989, Warren Cohen joined
the research staff of Common
Cause magazine. He became a researcher for U.S. News and World Report in 1990 and
later reported on regional issues for that publication. Cohen
worked for U.S News until
2000, when he became a senior news producer for the VH1 cable
network. He co-wrote 23 Days of
Terror, which depicts the Washington, D.C. sniper shootings,
with fellow U.S. News
writer Angie Cannon. | |||
Coleman, Wim | |||
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In a writing career spanning over twenty years, Wim Coleman has
written novels, plays, works of nonfiction, and many stories for
children. He often writes with his wife, Pat Perrin, Their newest
novel, The Maya Gateway,
investigates mythology, technology, and risk. Coleman’s
Stages of History is a
collection of royalty-free one-act plays about exciting events in
American history, and his Nine
Muses is a collection of original plays based on classic
myths. Both are available from Perfection Learning. | |||
Courlander, Harold | |||
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Harold Courlander was an important folklorist who lived and worked all over the world. He wrote many novels and authored or edited more than thirty volumes of folktales featuring stories from Haiti, the American Southwest, Africa, Asia, India, and other cultures. | |||
Cullen, Countee | |||
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Although there was no official documentation, Countee Cullen was
effectively adopted by Reverend Fred A. and Carolyn Cullen. Fred
Cullen was a pioneer black activist minister whose views had a
strong impression on his son. However, Countee Cullen’s poetry
often reflects unease towards this strong and conservative
Christian training. Cullen won his first writing contest while in
high school, with the poem "I Have a Rendezvous with Life." While
attending New York University, Cullen wrote most of the poems for
his first three volumes, Color,
Copper Sun, and The Ballad
of the Brown Girl. After graduating from NYU, Cullen earned
his Masters degree from Harvard University in English and French.
He won more prizes than any other black writer of the I 920s and
was among the first African Americans to be recognized as a serious
poet. Cullen wrote less after the 1930s, partly due to his position
as French teacher at Frederick Douglass Junior High School. | |||
Dove, Rita | |||
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When Rita Dove was a child, her father broke the race barrier in
research chemistry When she grew up, she began breaking down
barriers as a writer. In 1970 she was recognized at the White
I-louse as one of the hundred most outstanding high school
graduates in the United States. In 1973, she graduated summa cum
laude (as well as Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi) with a degree
in English and then spent the next two summers on Fuibright
scholarships to Germany Dove published her first book of poetry in
1980, and in 1987 won the Pulitzer Prize for a book of poems about
her grandparents. In 1993. she became the youngest person and the
first African American to serve as poet laureate of the United
States. In addition to poetry Dove has written and published
essays, stories, and a play that was performed in theatres around
the world. Currently she is Commonwealth Professor of English at
the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, She and her husband,
the writer Fred Viebahn, have a grown daughter | |||
Du Bois, W. E. B. | |||
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W. E. B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was a radical
attacker of injustice and defender of freedom for blacks,
considered one of the most influential black leaders of the first
half of the twentieth century. Du Bois helped to found the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.
Between 1897 and 1914 Du Bois conducted many studies of black
society in America and published sixteen research papers on his
findings, He began these investigations with the belief that social
science could provide answers to racial problems—however Du Bois
gradually concluded that in a climate of racism, social change
could only be accomplished through agitation and protest.
Initially, Du Bois was a firm supporter of black capitalism, but
slowly he edged to the left until by 1905 he was drawn to Socialism
and Marxism. In 1961 Du Bois became disillusioned with the United
States and moved to Ghana, joined the Communist Party and one year
later renounced his American citizenship. Du Bois died in 1963 in
Accra, shortly after becoming a Ghanaian citizen. | |||
Dunbar, Paul Laurence | |||
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One of the first African Americans to gain national recognition as
a poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar was born in Ohio in 1872, the son of
former slaves, Dunbar died at the early age of 33, but was quite
prolific in his work, writing many short stories, novels, plays,
songs, essays, and the poetry he became most famous for. He gave
credit for his success to his mother, whose excitement for poetry
spurred him to begin writing and reciting poems at age six. Popular
with both black and white readers of his day Dunbar’s style
encompasses two distinct voices—the standard English of classical
poets and the evocative dialect of turn-of-the.century black
America, He was very gifted in using this dialect to convey
character, His poetry often addresses the difficulties encountered
by blacks in America, | |||