Russell Freedman

Freedman being presented the National Humanities Medal by President George W. Bush at the White House in 2007 Russell A. Freedman (October 11, 1929 – March 16, 2018) was an American biographer and the author of some 60 books for young readers. He may be best known for winning the 1988 Newbery Medal with his work Lincoln: A Photobiography,

In addition to Lincoln: A Photobiography, Freedman received three Newbery Honor awards during his career for Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery, The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane, and The Voice That Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights.

Freedman also received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award (now known as the Children's Literature Legacy Award) and, in 2007, the National Humanities Medal —the highest civilian honor in the United States for contributions to the humanities. He was recognized "for his recounting of the history of our nation's struggle for liberty. With great insight and creativity, he has awakened young readers to our nation's ongoing quest for justice for all."

Biography

Books were an important part of Freedman's life. His father, Louis, was the West Coast marketing director of the Macmillan Publishing Company and had been instrumental in selling Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind to Hollywood. In a 1936 note to Louis, Mitchell wrote:

"Thanks so much for the marvelous job you did on the Coast. When I heard about the first ten thousand copies being sold, I nearly choked on my turkey sandwich, and Norman Berg (our Atlanta trade salesman) had to beat me on the back and revive me. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate all you and your office have done for my book."

As a result, Freedman grew up in a household where dinner guests included Mitchell and John Steinbeck, another Macmillan author. Freedman attended San Jose State University before transferring to the University of California, Berkeley.

After college, Freedman worked as a reporter for the Associated Press in San Francisco until the mid-1950s, when he moved to Manhattan to take a job in advertising. During this period, Freedman wrote his first book after reading an article about a blind teenage boy who invented a Braille typewriter. The book, Teenagers Who Made History, was published in 1961.

It was partly through Louis's help that Freedman got his break in children's nonfiction publishing. Many years later, Freedman evoked his father in his book about World War I, The War to End All Wars, which The New York Times praised as “movingly conveyed...sane, balanced history.” A photograph on page 133 of the book shows Louis, an American-born son of an immigrant Jewish family from Eastern Europe, at age sixteen. At age 16, Louis had run away from his prospective rabbinical training, lied about his age, and enlisted in the American military to fight in World War I.

A photo of Louis Freedman from P. 133 of Freedman's The War to End All War

Since the 1970s, Freedman lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, two floors below his friend and neighbor, the Jewish American novelist and children's book author Lore Segal (1928–2024).Lore Segal In a writing career spanning more than half a century, Freedman became known for his lucid prose, thorough research, and inviting book design, which meant a “meticulous integration of words and images.” “[If such] elements now seem commonplace in youth nonfiction,” it was, according to NPR, “thanks to his pioneering influence.”

Freedman lived in New York City.

Selected works

Cowboys of the Wild West, 1985 Lincoln: A Photobiography, 1987 Indian Chiefs, 1987 Buffalo Hunt, 1988 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1990 The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane, 1991 An Indian Winter, 1992 Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery, 1993 Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor, 1994 Immigrant Kids, 1995 The Life and Death of Crazy Horse, 1996 Out of Darkness: The Story of Louis Braille, 1997 Martha Graham: A Dancer's Life, 1998 Babe Didrikson Zaharias: The Making of a Champion, 1999 Give Me Liberty: The Story of The Declaration of Independence, 2000 Children of the Wild West, 2000 Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights, 2004 Children of the Great Depression, 2005 The Adventures of Marco Polo, 2006 Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 2006 Who Was First?: Discovering the Americas, 2007 Washington at Valley Forge, 2008 The War to End All Wars: World War I, 2010 Lafayette and the American Revolution, 2010

Awards

In 1998 Freedman received the Children's Literature Legacy Award 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". At the time it was awarded every three years.

Freedman received the Carter G. Woodson Book Award in 2005 for The Voice that Challenged a Nation and in 2007 for Freedom Walkers.

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