Yates, Elizabeth (1905-2001), was an American author. Yates wrote fiction and nonfiction for both children and adults. She was best known for her biographies for young readers and for her historical fiction.
Yates won the 1951 Newbery Medal for Amos Fortune, Free Man (1950). The book traces the life of an African who was brought to America as a slave at the age of 15, and who bought his freedom when he was 50 years old. In The Lighted Heart (1960), Yates described her experiences with her husband’s blindness. Her other children’s books include Carolina’s Courage (1964) and Sound Friendships (1987). She also wrote three volumes of autobiography: My Diary—My World (1981), My Widening World (1983), and One Writer’s Way (1984). Yates was born on Dec. 6, 1905, in Buffalo, New York. She died on July 29, 2001.
