� His mother was a dietician and his father owned a Phillips 66 gas station
� Served in the US Army, in Germany, where he ghost-wrote sermons for chaplains
� Studied at the University of Exeter in Devon, England, while in college (1954-1955)
� Graduated from DePauw with a B.A. in English (1956)
� Received M.A. from Southern Illinois University (1959)
� Studied at Washington University (1960-1961)
� Taught English in a suburban Chicago high school (1961-1963), where he first became aware of the special problems of teen-agers
� Worked briefly as a textbook editor
� Served as Assistant Director of the Council for Basic Education in Washington, D.C. (1969-1970)
� Moved to New York City, where he taught junior high school
� While teaching, he wrote a column on the architecture of historic neighborhoods for the New York Times, and contributed articles to other magazines and newspapers
� Frustrated with the permissive and unacademically unfocused atmosphere in the school where he taught, Peck resigned from teaching (1971) and began writing
� Published his first novel, Don�t Look and It Won�t Hurt (1972)
� Won first writing award (Friends of American Writers Award) for The Ghost Belonged to Me (1975)
� Won the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Are You in the House Alone? (1976)
� Named �Illinois Writer of the Year� (1977)
� Dreamland Lake and Father Figure included on School Library Journal's �Best of the Best 1966-1978 list (1979)
� Close Enough to Touch nominated for Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award (1982) and named a �Best Book for Young Adults� by the ALA (1981)
� Won the Margaret A. Edwards Award sponsored by YALSA and the ALAN Award (1990)
� Awarded the 1991 Medallion from the University of Southern Mississippi
� Won the Newbery Medal for A Year Down Yonder (2001)
� President George W. Bush honored him with a National Humanities Medal (2001)
� Won the Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers� Literature (2002)
� He travels over 70,000 miles every year, meeting and talking to young people
� For many years he was a guest lecturer for around-the-world cruises
� He does not own a computer and writes all his books on a typewriter
� His books have been recommended by virtually every publication and association in the field of children�s literature
� Currently lives in New York City
School of Library and Information Studies
TEXAS WOMAN'S UNIVERSITY