(born 1929), U.S. author. One of the few nonfiction writers ever to receive a Newbery Medal, Russell Freedman sought to make factual information interesting by presenting readers with gripping but accurate narratives of history and science. Freedman was born on Oct. 11, 1929, in San Francisco, Calif. The son of a representative for a large publishing company, he grew up surrounded by books and often was able to meet important authors. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1951 and served in the United States Army's Counter Intelligence Corps until 1953, after which he held various editorial jobs, including positions at the Associated Press and Columbia University Press. From 1969 to 1986, he worked as a writing instructor at the New School for Social Research. Freedman's first book, ‘Teenagers Who Made History', appeared 1961. Inspiration for the collection of biographies came from learning that Louis Braille was only 16 when he invented his reading system for the blind. Freedman wrote several other works of biography before focusing his attention on animal behavior. Beginning with ‘How Animals Learn' (1969), he published some 20 animal-related books over the next two decades, sometimes in collaboration with James E. Morriss. Praised by numerous educational organizations, the books put scientific information into accessible language, often with the aid of detailed drawings or photographs. Freedman marked a gradual return to writing about people with ‘Immigrant Kids' (1980). Also in the 1980s, he began making the 19th-century American West a frequent subject of his books. He received the Western Heritage Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame for ‘Children of the Wild West' (1983) and was honored by the Western Writers of America for ‘Cowboys of the Wild West' (1985). Freedman became the first nonfiction writer to receive the Newbery Medal in more than 30 years when he won in 1988 for ‘Lincoln: A Photobiography'. Some 90 photographs accompanied Freedman's extensively researched account of the life of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States. Freedman also wrote the Newbery Honor Books ‘The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane' (1991) and ‘Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery' (1993). Another photobiography, ‘Franklin Delano Roosevelt' (1990), received the Orbis Pictus Award for nonfiction. |