Authors: Virginia Hamilton
Bluish (9 page)
Hamilton’s first published novel,
Zeely
, was published in 1967.
Zeely
was an instant success, winning a Nancy Bloch Award and earning recognition as an American Library Association Notable Children’s Book. After returning to Yellow Springs with her young family, Hamilton began to write and publish a book nearly every year. Though most of her writing targeted young adults or children, she experimented in a wide range of styles and genres. Her second book,
The House of Dies Drear
(1968), is a haunting mystery that won the Edgar Allan Poe Award.
The Planet of Junior Brown
(1971) and
Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush
(1982) rely on elements of fantasy and science fiction. Many of her titles focus on the importance of family, including
M.C. Higgins, the Great
(1974) and
Cousins
(1990). Much of Hamilton’s work explores African American history, such as her fictionalized account
Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave
(1988).
Hamilton passed away in 2002 after a long battle with breast cancer. She is survived by her husband Arnold Adoff and their two children.
For further information, please visit Hamilton’s updated and comprehensive website:
www.virginiahamilton.com
A twelve-year-old Hamilton in 1948, when she was in the seventh grade.
Hamilton at a New York City club while she was a student at Antioch College in the mid-1950s. She often performed as a folk and jazz vocalist in clubs and larger venues.
Hamilton with her brothers, Buster and Bill, and sisters, Barbara and Nina, around 1954.
Hamilton’s head shots. The first was taken while she was a teenager in the early 1950s. The second was taken in her New York City apartment in the late 1960s, before she and Adoff built their house in Yellow Springs.
Hamilton outside of her first New York City apartment, which she shared with Adoff, around 1960. The couple moved to a below-street-level single room on Jane Street and, Adoff says, “thought we were such hot stuff, living in the Village and taking our places in that wonderful and long line of writers banging their heads against the wall . . . but in style.”
Adoff and Hamilton in Gibraltar in 1960, after a hard day of shopping and climbing the rock seen in the photo. As Adoff recalls, “This was the first time I convinced Virginia to sell everything but the books and leave America forever. It was also our delayed honeymoon. We made our way from Bremen to Paris to Málaga to a residency in Torremolinos, Spain, where we worked on our manuscripts and took side trips. This was one of them.”
Taken in 1965 in Argelès-plage, France, this photo shows the building where Hamilton and Adoff rented an apartment during what Adoff calls their “second time leaving America forever . . .”
Hamilton, Jaime, and Leigh at a reception at the Yellow Springs Public Library in 1975 after she received the Newbery Medal.
Hamilton at the publication party for
Jaguarundi
. She attended hundreds of conferences and book signings at schools and libraries around the country as each of her books was published.
Hamilton, Adoff, Leigh, and Jaime at Leigh’s wedding in Berlin in 2001.