Byrd Baylor Schweitzer

Byrd Baylor Schweitzer is an American author of picture books for children. Four of her books have achieved Caldecott Honor status.  She was born on 28 March 1924 in San Antonio, Texas.  She is related to Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor, the namesake of Baylor University, and to Admiral Richard E. Byrd. Her first name, Byrd, is taken from her mother's maiden name.

Baylor's work presents images of the Southwest and an intense connection between the land and the Native American people.  Her prose illustrates vividly the value of simplicity, the natural world, and the balance of life within it.

 Baylor currently lives in Arizona, in an adobe house that does not have electricity, but with three manual typewriters.

Baylor was awarded Caldecott Honors for her books When Clay Sings (1973) with illustrator Tom Bahti, and The Desert is Theirs (1976), Hawk, I'm Your Brother (1977), and The Way to Start a Day (1979) with illustrator Peter Parnall.

Web Source: Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia