Milton Meltzer (May 8, 1915 – September 19, 2009) was an
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...
and
author
An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states:
"''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...
best known for his nonfiction books on
Jewish,
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
, and
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
history. Since the 1950s, he was a prolific author of history books in the
children's literature
Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader.
Children's ...
and
young adult literature genres, having written nearly 100 books. Meltzer was an advocate for human rights, as well as an adjunct professor for the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
He won the biennial
Laura Ingalls Wilder Award
The Children's Literature Legacy Award (known as the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal until 2018) is a prize awarded by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to writers or illustrat ...
for his career contribution to American children's literature in 2001.
["Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, Past winners"](_blank)
Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC). American Library Association
The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members a ...
(ALA).  
"About the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award"
ALSC. ALA. Retrieved 2013-03-09. Meltzer died of esophageal cancer in 2009.
/ref>
Personal life
Meltzer was born in Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...
to Benjamin and Mary Meltzer, semi-literate immigrants from Austria-Hungary. One of three sons, Meltzer was the only child to graduate from high school, furthering his education at Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
from 1932 to 1936, he had to drop out of college before graduating to support his family after his father died of cancer. Meltzer became a staff writer for the Works Project Administration, a program designed by the Federal Government to provide jobs for the millions of unemployed during the Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
where he worked until 1939. Meltzer was a staunch advocate for human rights, and much of his work he claimed was his way of speaking out against injustices and dictatorships.
Meltzer wed Hilda "Hildy" Balinky on June 22, 1941. Meltzer served in the military during World War II, and rose to the rank of sergeant. After serving during the war, Meltzer became a writer for the CBS radio
CBS Radio was a radio broadcasting company and radio network operator owned by CBS Corporation and founded in 1928, with consolidated radio station groups owned by CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting/Group W since the 1920s, and Infinity Broadc ...
broadcasting network and then took an executive position with the pharmaceutical company Pfizer
Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered on 42nd Street in Manhattan, New York City. The company was established in 1849 in New York by two German entrepreneurs, Charles Pfizer ...
. While traveling the country for Pfizer, Meltzer did research at historical societies, local archives and museums and collected nearly 1,000 illustrations to begin a career writing history books with a focus on social justice. Having dropped out of university, he was a self-taught historian, and conducted much of his research in person, even developing his own notation system. He originally intended to be a teacher, and did not begin his interest in writing books until he turned 40.
Milton and Hildy Meltzer had two daughters and grandchildren. Hildy Meltzer died in 2008.
Meltzer most recently lived in New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
where he died at the age of 94 from esophageal cancer. Many of his personal writings, manuscripts, and papers, including letters, are now housed in the University of Oregon Special Collections, and are available to the public.
Writing and awards
Meltzer's books often chronicled struggles for freedom, such as the American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
, the antislavery movement of the nineteenth-century United States, and the movement against antisemitism.
He wrote several biographies, including ones of Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, Hug ...
and Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
. Though most of his books are nonfiction he wrote two historical fiction novels, ''The Underground Man'' and ''Tough Times.'' ''The Underground Man'' is about a white abolitionist in the 1800s United States who is imprisoned for helping escaped slaves. ''Tough Times'' details the life of a young man coming of age during the Great Depression and draws on some of Meltzer's personal experiences growing up during the period''.''
Some of Meltzer's other works focus on topics such as piracy
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...
, ancient Egypt, and early American wars with the Seminole people
The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and ...
. Meltzer co-authored with Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the t ...
writer Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, Hug ...
the book ''A Pictorial History of the Negro in America'', which was published in 1956. He also collaborated with Hughes on ''Black Magic: A Pictorial History of the African-American in the Performing Arts'', though Hughes passed shortly after the book went to the press.
Meltzer won several awards for single books and career achievements. In 1981 he was an American Book Award finalist for ''All Times, All Peoples: A World History of Slavery''. Meltzer's ''Never to Forget: The Jews of the Holocaust'' was the 1976 recipient of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most p ...
in the non-fiction category and winner of the National Jewish Book Award. He won the Boston Globe-Horn Award in 1983 for ''Jewish Americans: A History in Their own Words, 1650-1950.'' In 2003 he received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award
The Children's Literature Legacy Award (known as the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal until 2018) is a prize awarded by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to writers or illustrat ...
from the professional children's librarians, which recognizes a living author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made "a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children". The committee noted that he "continues to be a model for informational writing today" and cited four works in particular: ''Brother Can You Spare a Dime?''; ''Ten Queens''; ''All Times, All Peoples''; and ''The Jewish Americans''.
The two books by Meltzer most widely contained in WorldCat
WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the OCL ...
participating libraries are ''Never to Forget: the Jews of the Holocaust'' (1976) and ''Rescue: the story of how gentiles saved Jews in the Holocaust'' (1988). The latter is classified as juvenile literature and was soon published in a German-language edition.
Other achievements and works
Meltzer was an adjunct professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...
from 1977 to 1980, and a guest lecturer at universities in the United States and England. Additionally he presented at professional gatherings and did seminars for other professionals. He did work on various documentary films such as ''History of the American Negro'' and ''Five''.
Works
Autobiographical
* '' Starting from Home: A Writer's Beginnings'' (Viking Kestrel
Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim and then acquire ...
, 1988)
* '' Milton Meltzer: Writing Matters'' (Franklin Watts
Grolier was one of the largest American publishers of general encyclopedias, including '' The Book of Knowledge'' (1910), ''The New Book of Knowledge'' (1966), ''The New Book of Popular Science'' (1972), ''Encyclopedia Americana'' (1945), ''Acad ...
, 2004)
Non-fiction
* In the Days of the Pharaohs: A Look at Ancient Egypt (1956)
* '' A Pictorial History of the Negro in America'', Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, Hug ...
and Milton Meltzer (1956)
** 3rd ed. revised by C. Eric Lincoln
Charles Eric Lincoln (June 23, 1924 – May 14, 2000) was an American scholar.Eric V. Copage in ''The New York Times'', May 17, 2000.Penne J. Laubenthal"C. Eric Lincoln" Encyclopedia of Alabama, June 14, 2011. He was the author of several books, i ...
and Milton Meltzer (1968)
** 4th revised ed., '' A Pictorial History of Black Americans'', by Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, Hug ...
, Milton Meltzer, and Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
( Crown, 1973)
* Tongue of Flame: The Life of Lydia Maria Child (1958)
* '' Mark Twain Himself: A Pictorial Biography'' (1960)
* '' Milestones to American Liberty'' (1961)
* A Thoreau Profile, by Henry David Thoreau, Milton Meltzer, Roy Harding (1962)
* '' Thoreau: People, Principles and Politics'' (1963)
* '' In Their Own Words: A History of the American Negro'', editor ( Crowell, 1964–1967), 3 vols.
* A Light in the Dark: the Life of Samuel Gridley Howe. (1964)
* Milestonese to American Liberty: Foundations of the Republic (1966)
* Time of Trial, Time of Hope: The Negro in America 1919-1941 (1966)
* '' Black Magic: A Pictorial History of the Negro in American Entertainment'', Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, Hug ...
and Milton Meltzer (1967); later title, '' Black Magic: A Pictorial History of the African-American in the Performing Arts''
* '' Bread and Roses: The Struggle of American Labor, 1865–1915'' (1967)
* Thaddeus Stevens and the Fight for Negro Rights (1967)
* '' Langston Hughes: A Biography'' (1968) — NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...
finalist
* '' Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?: The Great Depression, 1929–1933'' (1969)
* '' Margaret Sanger: Pioneer of Birth Control'' (1969) (co-author)
* Freedom Comes to Mississippi: The Story of Reconstruction (1970)
* Slavery (1971)
* Milestone to American Liberty (1971)
* To Change the World: A Picture History of Reconstruction (1971)
* The Right to Remain Silent (1972)
* Reconstruction (1972)
* Hunted Like A Wolf: The Story of the Seminole War (1972)
* The Mexican-American War (1973)
* '' Bound for the Rio Grande: The Mexican Struggle 1845-1850'' (1974)
* Eye of Conscience: Photographers and Social Change (1974)
* '' Remember the Days'' (1974) — NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...
finalist
* '' World of Our Fathers'' (1974) — NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...
finalist
* '' Never to Forget: The Jews of the Holocaust'' (1976)
* Violins & Shovels: the WPA Arts Projects (1976)
* Taking Root: Jewish Immigrants in America (1976)
* Slavery from the Rise of Western Civilization to Today (1977)
* '' Dorothea Lange: A Photographer's Life'' (1978)
* '' The Human Rights Book'' (1979)
* '' All Times, All Peoples: A World History of Slavery'' (1980)
* '' The Chinese Americans'' (1981, Carter G. Woodson Award winner)
* '' The Jewish Americans: A History in Their Own Words'' (1982)
* The Hispanic Americans (1982)
* The Truth about the Ku Klux Klan (1982)
* The Terrorists (1983)
* A Book About Names: in which Custom, Tradition, Law, Myth, History, Folklore, Foolery, Legend, Fashion, Nonsense, Symbol, Taboo help explain how we got our names and what they mean (1984)
* '' The Black Americans: A History in Their Own Words, 1619–1983'' ( Crowell, 1984)
* '' Ain't Gonna Study War No More: A Story of America's Peace Seekers'' (1985)
* Betty Friedan: A Voice for Women's Rights (1985)
* Poverty in America (1986)
* '' George Washington and the Birth of Our Nation'' (1986)
* Winnie Mandela: The Soul of South Africa (1986)
* Mary McLeod Bethune: Voice of Black Hope (1987)
* The Landscape of Memory (1987)
* '' The American Revolutionaries: A History in their Own Words, 1750–1800'' (1987)
* '' Benjamin Franklin: The New American'' (1988)
* '' Rescue: The Story of How Gentiles Saved Jews in the Holocaust'' (1988)
* '' Starting From Home'' (1988)
* American Politics: How it Really Works (1989)
* '' Voices From the Civil War: A Documentary History of the Great American Conflict'' (1989)
* ''The Big Book for Peace
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'' ( Dutton, 1990) (Illustrated by Leonard Everett Fisher)
* The Bill of Rights: How We Got It and What it Means (1990)
* Columbus and the World Around Him (1990)
* The American Promise (1990)
* Crime in America (1990)
* '' Thomas Jefferson: The Revolutionary Aristocrat'' (1991)
* '' The Amazing Potato: A Story in Which the Incas, Conquistadors, Marie Antoinette, Thomas Jefferson, Wars, Famines, Immigrants, and French Fries all Play a Part'' (1992)
* Voices from the Civil War (1992)
* Politics of Plagiarism (1992)
* The American Revolutionaries (1993)
* Lincoln, in his own words, by Stephen Alcorn and Milton Meltzer (1993)
* Andrew Jackson: And His America (1993)
* Gold: The True Story of Why People Search for it, Mine it, Trade it, Steal it, Mint it, Hoard it, Shape it, Wear it, Fight and Kill for it (1993)
* Theodore Roosevelt and His America (1994)
* Cheap Raw Material (1994)
* Who Cares: Millions Do, A Book About Altruism (1994)
* Hold your Horses: A Feedbag full of Fact and Fable (1995)
* Tomas Paine: Voice of Revolution (1996)
* Weapons & Warfare: From the Stone Age to the Space Age (1996)
* A History of Jewish Life from Eastern Europe to America (1996)
* The Many Lives of Andrew Carnegie (1997)
* '' Ten Queens: A Portrait of Women of Power'' (1998)
* Food (1998)
* Witches and Witch-Hunts: A History of Persecution (1999)
* Driven from the Land (1999)
* Carl Sandburg: A Biography (1999)
* They Came in Chains: the Story of the Slave Ships (2000)
* Piracy & Plunder: A Murderous Business (2001)
* Captain James Cook: Three Times Around the World (Great Explorations) (2001)
* Robert E. Peary: To the Top of the World (2001)
* Ferdinand Magellan (2001)
* Bound for America (2001)
* The Trail of Tears: The Story of the Cherokee Removal (Great Journeys) (2001)
* Case Closed (2001)
* Great Explorations (2001)
* Ten Kings: and the Worlds they Ruled (2002)
* Walt Whitman: A Biography (2002)
* '' There Comes a Time: The Struggle for Civil Rights'' (2001)
* Day the Sky Fell (2002)
* Hour of Freedom, by Milton Meltzer and Marc Nadel (2003)
* The Cotton Gin (Great Inventions) (2003)
* The Printing Press (2003)
* '' Edgar Allan Poe: A Biography'' (2003)
* Francisco Pizarro: The Conquest of Peru (Great Explorations) 2004)
* '' Hear That Whistle Blow!: How the Railroad Changed the World'' (2004)
* Emily Dickinson (2004)
* Henry David Thoreau: A Biography (2006)
* '' Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Biography'' (2006)
* Herman Melville: A Biography (2006)
* Albert Einstein: A Biography (2007)
* Willa Cather (2007)
* Up Close: John Steinbeck (2008)
* Lincoln, in his own words, by Stephen Alcorn and Milton Meltzer (2008)
* John Steinbeck: a twentieth-century life (2008)
Fiction
* ''The Underground Man (1972)''
* ''Tough Times (2007)''
Notes
References
External links
Guide to the Milton Meltzer Papers 1955–1973
Special Collections, University of Oregon — with biographical notes
"'It Was a Wildly Exciting Time': Milton Meltzer Remembers the New Deal's Federal Theatre Project"
at History Matters
* — audiobook including the Wilder speech by Meltzer
at The Worcester Writers Project
Milton Meltzer
at Bookrags
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meltzer, Milton
20th-century American historians
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
Historians of the United States
Jewish American historians
American non-fiction children's writers
Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal winners
Carter G. Woodson Book Award winners
University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty
Columbia University alumni
American male non-fiction writers
Historians from Massachusetts
Writers from Worcester, Massachusetts
Deaths from cancer in New York (state)
Deaths from esophageal cancer
1915 births
2009 deaths
American military personnel of World War II
American non-commissioned personnel