Russell A. Freedman
October 11, 1929
San Francisco, California[1]
March 16, 2018 (aged 88)
New York City[2]
Biographer, author
Newbery Medal (1988)
Biography[edit]
Books were an important part of Freedman's life. His father worked for a company, and his mother worked in a bookstore.
He attended college first at San Jose State University.
Later, Freedman worked as a reporter and editor for the Associated Press in San Francisco until the mid-1950s, when he took an advertising job in Manhattan. It was during this time that Freedman wrote his first novel after reading an article about a blind teenage boy who invented a Braille typewriter. The book, Teenagers Who Made History, was published in 1961. After its publication, Freedman quit his job and became a full-time writer.[4]
As a writer of children's nonfiction, Freedman is often noted for his thorough research, and was praised for his "meticulous integration of words and images"[5]
Freedman lived in New York City.