Russell Freedman has a long career of publishing nonfiction books for children and young adults in a pioneering format, using compelling photographs to illustrate his work. Freedman's technique is to immerse himself in his topic, learning everything he can about the person or subject, and then to complete painstaking research in photographic archives in order to find just the right pictures to illustrate his story. He has written award-winning books about cowboys, animals, and Indians of the American West, as well as biographies of American presidents and inventors. His Lincoln: A Photobiography won the 1988 Newbery Medal.

Freedman was born on October 11, 1929, in San Francisco, California, one of two children. He grew up in an atmosphere where literary accomplishments were encouraged. "My father was a great storyteller," Freedman related in his Newbery Medal Acceptance speech, reprinted in Horn Book. "The problem was, we never knew for sure whether the...