Richard Wayne Peck was born in Decatur, Illinois, in 1934, a place he has described as “middle Middle America” (“Obituary: Richard Peck.” Publishers Weekly, 24 May 2018). He was educated at DePauw University, Indiana, and the University of Exeter, UK. After briefly serving as a chaplain’s assistant in the U.S. Army during the draft, he completed his master’s degree at Southern Illinois University. At first, he worked as a high school English teacher but left after a few years to pursue writing, in 1971. Since then, Peck has written over 50 books for children, teens, and adults. His earliest novels were so-called “problem novels,” dealing with contemporary teenage issues such as pregnancy, rape, and suicide. After his first historical novel in the “Blossom Culp” series, The Ghost Belonged to Me (1975), was adapted as a film, he has written several works of historical fiction for young adults.

Peck’s leap to fame came in the late 1990s after the publication of A Long Way from Chicago (1999), a Newbery Honor Book and National Book Award finalist. Its sequel, A Year Down Yonder (2000) won the 2001 Newbery Medal.