A popular author of fantasy and young adult literature, he is best known for his Chronicles of Prydain series. A Newbery Medal recipient, he also won National Book Awards in both 1971 (for The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian) and 1982 (for Westmark).
He briefly attended Haverford College before serving in the U.S. Army during World War II. He decided at age fifteen that he wanted to become a writer; a decade and a half later, he published And Let the Credit Go (1955), his first novel.
His Chronicles of Prydain children's fantasy books focus on a young servant boy who tends to what turns out to be an oracular pig.
He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He married Janine Denni in 1946. The couple's daughter, Madeleine, passed away in 1990.
Walter Myers was another Writer of young adult fiction who won the National Book Award.
