“I
love writing. I've pursued it with a passion.”
– Betsy Byars
Byars,
who was born on this date in 1928, is the author of more than 60 books for
young adults and children, several of which have won the top book awards,
including a Newbery Medal for Summer of the Swans, a National
Book Award for Children’s Fiction for The Night Swimmers, and an Edgar
Award (given annually for best mysteries) for Wanted ... Mud Blossom.
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, and listed as one of the
Educational Paperback Association's top 100 authors. In 1987 Byars received the Regina Medal for
lifetime achievement from the Catholic Library Association.
She
studied English at Queens College in her native North Carolina and started
writing for magazines while living in Illinois where her husband was working on
his graduate degree. 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. While she created
many beloved characters, each is usually a stand-alone story. 
“Early in my career, I decided not
to do sequels,” she said. “I know that
children enjoy them, but I valued the feeling that this was the only time I
would write about these characters. I felt it gave me an added incentive to do
my best by them, to tell readers everything I knew; to hold nothing back.”
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