L. A. Meyer

Louis A. Meyer (January 1, 1942 – July 29, 2014) was a Maine author. Writing under the name L.A. Meyer, he was best known for his young-adult historical series The Jacky Faber Adventures, also known as the Bloody Jack series. He also wrote two children's picture books and was a painter. He and his wife owned an art gallery called Clair de Loon in Bar Harbor.

Personal life L.A. Meyer was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania and spent most of his career in Corea, Maine. His father was an officer in the U.S. Army, so he spent much of his childhood moving around with his family. He attended 12 different schools before graduating high school in Fort Myers, Florida. After finishing university at the University of Florida, in Gainesville, Meyer earned a B.A. in English literature.

Later he enlisted in the U.S. Navy for 4 years. While in the Navy, he married his college sweetheart, Annetje Lawrence (in 1966). he and his wife owned an art gallery called Clair de Loon in Bar Harbor, where they sold matted and framed prints of his artwork.

Jacky Faber books Meyer invented the idea for the character of Jacky Faber while listening to British and Celtic folk music on a local community radio station in his workshop. Meyer describes the moment on his website:

...the host of the program plays a long string of early nineteenth century songs that feature young girls dressing up as boys and following their boyfriends out to sea, the most well known of these being Jackaroe and Cana-di-i-o. These songs generally end up with the girl being found out quickly and threatened with being thrown overboard, but all ends happily when she either marries the boy or the captain.

It occurred to me, however, to wonder what it would be like if the girl, instead of seeking to be with her lover, connives to get on board a British warship in order to just eat regularly and have a place to stay, her being a starving orphan on the streets of early 1800s London. What would she have to do to pull off this deception for a long period of time? What if she goes through the changes of adolescence while on board in the company of 408 rather rough men and boys, and her not having much of a clue as to what is happening to her? What if this ship goes into combat and she has to do her dangerous duty? And, finally, what if she falls in love with one of the boys and can never tell him of her female nature?

I started making notes and seven months later Bloody Jack was done. The book was published posthumously in November 2014.