February 19 marks the tenth anniversary of the death of Virginia Hamilton, one of the most distinguished authors of children’s literature. Hamilton wrote and published forty-one books and was awarded nearly every award in the field, including the Newbery Medal and the National Book Award for M. C. Higgins, the Great. Woven into her books is a deep commitment to the memories, traditions, and generational legacies that help define the lives of African Americans.
Open Road celebrates the work of this beloved author with a video featuring Hamilton’s husband, Arnold Adoff, and son, Jamie Adoff, who describe her wonderful personal qualities and the legacy she leaves behind.
In addition, we’d like to share a tribute from author Pam Muñoz Ryan. During her acceptance speech for the Virginia Hamilton Literary Award for Multicultural Literature at Kent State University, Ryan read “A Letter to Virginia Hamilton.”
Dear Virginia Hamilton,
I never met you on this earth. I met you in your books. And I have only recently come to know more, through the books others wrote about you.
Do you know that you continue to touch people’s lives with your indomitable spirit? Do you know that your legacy is a presence to which people lean and reach out? Do you know that I look ahead on my own path and I see you in front of me?
I did not get to this podium today without you. You walked before me. You swept my path clean and free from noisy hate. You removed the boulders on which I might have stumbled. You weeded the negative and the un-informed, plucking them with your nimble fingers and tossing them away from my footfalls.
Oh . . . and those roses you planted alongside the road! They have grown those roses!
Someday, Virginia Hamilton, when I sit with you to have tea, in that place between soul and star, I will tell you about the roses. How the briars hold back the ignorant. How the long-stemmed red blossoms continue to resonate with fire and passion. How the yellow, constant-blooming floribundas burst with personal epiphanies. How the pink Cecil Brunners trail for miles . . . with the gratitude of readers.
And I will tell you, too, how much I loved the brilliant escort of what you once planted—all those roses, nodding their heads at me, as if to say, “Yes . . . yes.”
Virginia Hamilton . . . how did you know that I might walk this way?
Pam Muñoz Ryan
April 9, 2010