Celebrating Virginia Hamilton and Arnold Adoff in Our Campus Library

Jan 29, 2025 | Black Voices, Campus Happenings

Award-winning author Virginia Hamilton and her husband, poet and teacher Arnold Adoff, were both instrumental figures in creating Black children’s literature. Their son, Jaime Adoff, and his sister, international opera singer and voice teacher Leigh Adoff-Zeise, established The Virginia Hamilton and Arnold Adoff “Breaking Barriers” Scholarship in the name of their legendary parents to help foster and promote unique voices and diverse perspectives that will continue to break barriers in the field. 

You can now see some memorabilia from the careers’ of these two pioneers in our campus library! The display includes:

Hans Christian Andersen Medal
The medal was awarded to Virginia Hamilton in 1992. This prestigious prize, given biennially by the International Board on Books for Young People, to an author/illustrator living at the time of the nominations, is for the body of their work. The Hans Christian Andersen Award is the most important international award in children’s literature.

MacArthur Fellow Acknowledgement
In 1995 Virginia Hamilton became the first children’s book author ever to win a MacArthur Fellowship. The MacArthur Fellowship, also known as the “genius grant,” is an unrestricted fellowship awarded annually to individuals who demonstrate exceptional creativity and potential for significant future advances.

NCTE Award for Excellence in Children’s Poetry
In 1988, Arnold Adoff became just the eighth person to receive this prestigious award. NCTE established the Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children in 1977 to honor a living American poet for their aggregate work for children ages 3-13.

Olivetti Lettera 22 Typewriter
This typewriter (circa 1960s) was used by both Virginia Hamilton and Arnold Adoff early in their careers. The Olivetti Lettera 22 is Olivetti’s most famous and successful typewriter. It is in the permanent collections of the MoMA in New York.

Edgar Allen Poe Award
Awarded to Virgina Hamilton in 1968 by the Mystery Writers of America for best Juvenile Mystery, The House of Dies Drear.

Photo of the Virginia Hamilton Arnold Adoff Library Display
Photo of the Virginia Hamilton Arnold Adoff Library Display
Photo of the Virginia Hamilton Arnold Adoff Library Display
Photo of the Virginia Hamilton Arnold Adoff Library Display

The Virginia Hamilton and Arnold Adoff “Breaking Barriers” Scholarship

The scholarship is for children’s book writers and poets who demonstrate a truly unique voice highlighting diverse perspectives.

Jaime Adoff and his sister Leigh Adoff-Zeise established this scholarship in the name of their legendary parents to help foster and promote unique voices and diverse perspectives that will continue to break barriers in the field.

Jaime, who is an award-winning children’s/YA author and poet says:

“After participating in two Highlights retreats at this magical location, it was clear to me that this was a place my parents would have loved and would have wanted to be a part of. My sister and I can think of no better way to honor and continue their legacy of groundbreaking excellence than by helping others in the pursuit of theirs.”

Virginia Hamilton:
Virginia Esther Hamilton (March 12, 1934-February 19, 2002) was born, as she said, “on the outer edge of the Great Depression.” The youngest of five children of Kenneth James and Etta Belle Perry Hamilton, Virginia grew up amid a large extended family in Yellow Springs, Ohio. The farmlands of southwestern Ohio had been home to her mother’s family since the late 1850s, when Virginia’s grandfather, Levi Perry, was brought into the state as an infant via the Underground Railroad.

Virginia graduated at the top of her high-school class and received a full scholarship to Antioch College in Yellow Springs. In 1956, she transferred to the Ohio State University in Columbus and majored in literature and creative writing. She moved to New York City in 1958, working as a museum receptionist, cost accountant, and nightclub singer, while she pursued her dream of being a published writer. She studied fiction writing at the New School for Social Research under Hiram Haydn, one of the founders of Atheneum Press.

It was also in New York that Virginia met poet Arnold Adoff. They were married in 1960. Arnold worked as a teacher, and Virginia was able to devote her full attention to writing until her two children came along.  In 1969, Virginia and Arnold built their “dream home” in Yellow Springs, on the last remaining acres of the old Hamilton/Perry family farm and settled into a life of serious literary work and achievement.

In her lifetime, Virginia wrote and published 41 books in multiple genres that spanned picture books and folktales, mysteries and science fiction, realistic novels and biography. Woven into her books is a deep concern with memory, tradition, and generational legacy, especially as they helped define the lives of African Americans. Virginia described her work as “Liberation Literature.” She won every major award in youth literature, which included being the first person of color to win the John Newbery Award. She also received The National Book Award, The Boston Globe-Horn book Award for Fiction, The Edgar Allan Poe Award (“The Edgar), the Hans Christian Anderson Medal, and was the first children’s book writer to win a MacArthur Fellowship. (Genius Grant)

Arnold Adoff:
Arnold Adoff (July 16, 1935-May 7th, 2021) was raised by Russian immigrant parents in the South Bronx who valued their Jewish heritage and liberal causes, and prized the roles of women in society. He received a BA degree from the City College of New York and then, for a period of time, studied history at Columbia University and the New School for Social Research. During this time, he met and married author Virginia Hamilton. As a social studies teacher for twelve years in Harlem and the Upper West Side of New York, he became aware of the lack of African American literature in the schools and decided to do something about it. At this time, he became an aficionado of Black poetry which led to his first anthology, I am the Darker Brother. This book was recently updated to include the poems of Maya Angelou, Rita Dove, Nikki Giovanni, Ishmail Reed, and Alice Walker. At the same time, he was anthologizing others’ poetry, he also was practicing his own craft.

Arnold wrote over 30 books in his career- the most groundbreaking being Black is Brown is Tan. This was the first book written and published with an interracial family as the protagonists. He won countless awards including the Children’s Book of the year citation for I am the Darker Brother, the American Library Association’s best book for young adult citation award for Slow Dance Heartbreak Blues, best children’s book award, School Library Journal for both It is the Poem Singing into your Eyes and Black is Brown is Tan. In 1988, the National Council of Teachers of English gave Adoff the Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children. He has said, “I will always try to turn sights and sounds into words. I will always try to shape words into my singing poems.”

"I began writing for kids because I wanted to effect a change in American society. I continue in that spirit. By the time we reach adulthood, we are closed and set in our attitudes. The chances of a poet reaching us are very slim. But I can open a child’s imagination, develop his appetite for poetry, and more importantly, show him that poetry is a natural part of everyday life. We all need someone to point out that the emperor is wearing no clothes. That’s the poet’s job.” - Arnold Adoff

Our Mission in Action

Share Your Story, Inspire a Child
Scholarships
Equity & Inclusion in Kidlit
Partners & Sponsors

The Highlights Foundation positively impacts children by amplifying the voices of storytellers who inform, educate, and inspire children to become their best selves.  Learn more about our impact.