Virginia Hamilton "A Hometown Celebration" Scrapbook (MS-669)

Virginia Hamilton, was a distinguished author of children and young adult books, as well as an African-American woman from Yellow Springs, Ohio. She is known for including complex ideas and understanding for African Americans in her writing. Virginia became interested in literature and writing at a young age in Yellow Springs. She began reading as an escape from the Depression then entered a contest at the Yellow Springs Library. That was the first prize Virginia won as a writer, the prize was a collection of fairy tales. Hamilton was a very creative young woman. She was not only a writer, but she entered public speaking competitions, she sung at different events, and she wrote the class play while she was a senior in high school. She went on to win many awards for her writings which total over forty novels and collections of stories. She wrote about her past and her love for Ohio. Virginia was closely tied to Yellow Springs and the Yellow Springs Library, which is why the library put on the memorial they did. She is the only children’s book author who has won a MacArthur grant. She has also won a plethora of other awards for her writings.

Hamilton’s family was centered in Yellow Springs, but she left for New York and became a publisher. After fifteen years, she returned to Yellow Springs with her husband, Arnold Adoff, to raise their two children, Jaime and Leigh. Hamilton died in 2002 of breast cancer.

The scrapbook creator, Gratia Banta, was an artist and a librarian at Germantown Public Library. Stephanie Bange, the facilitator of the donation, was the Director of the Educational Resource Center at Wright State University at the time of the scrapbook’s donation in 2013.