Daniel Dyer

Daniel Dyer has been writing since the 1950s when, a child, he published his first novel, a three-page handwritten effort dedicated to his mother called "The Little Family." (Literary scholars have searched in vain for the original manuscript.)

A sixth-generation teacher, Dyer (whose Ph.D. is from Kent State University) has taught every level from middle school through college undergraduates. He won several awards for teaching and scholarship from the National Endowment for the Humanities (including their prestigious Teacher-Scholar Award) and in 2011 earned an excellence in teaching award from Western Reserve Academy, where he had taught the previous ten years.

While teaching, he began his career as a freelance writer, publishing numerous op-ed essays in the Cleveland Plain Dealer--and in newspapers across the country.

His essays have appeared, as well, in national magazines, including Tennis, National Review, Alaska--and various journals devoted to education and teaching.

In the 1990s he published several titles related to Jack London, including annotated editions of THE CALL OF THE WILD (Univ. of Okla. Pr.) and JACK LONDON: A BIOGRAPHY (Scholastic Press, 1997), an award-winning volume.

In 1999, he commenced another career--as a book-reviewer. He has published over 100 reviews for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and more than 1100 for Kirkus Reviews. He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

In February 2012, he published the first two of what will be a series of books for Kindle Direct Publishing: EDGAR ALLAN POE: A BIOGRAPHY and THE MOTHER OF THE MONSTER: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLEY. Later came TURNING PAGES: A MEMOIR OF BOOKS AND LIBRARIES AND LOSS, SCHOOLBOY: A MEMOIR, ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE: THE WORLDS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, and four YA novels, MIND-BOGGLE, KICKING AND SCREAMING, BOB THE SLOB, and THE PAPERS OF VICTORIA FRANKENSTEIN.

He is currently at work on a memoir about chasing Mary Shelley for a decade and, as always, starts his day at a local coffee shop, where he reads a galley he will later review.

He lives in northeastern Ohio with his wife, writer Joyce Dyer, whose most recent book is GOOSETOWN: RECONSTRUCTING AN AKRON NEIGHBORHOOD, 2009.