Deep Blues: Bill Traylor, Self-Taught Artist

by Mary E. Lyons

A portrait of self-taught African-American artist Bill Traylor, an artist whose career began after his eightieth birthday, explores the work of this former slave whose life spanned the Civil War, Reconstruction, and both world wars.

Genres: Art, African American, Biography

42 pages, Library Binding

First published September 1, 1994

About the author

Mary E. Lyons, a former teacher and librarian, became a full-time writer in 1993. She is the author of nineteen books for young readers published by Scribner, Atheneum, Henry Holt, Houghton Mifflin and Oxford University Press.

Born and raised in the American South, Mary Lyons lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, with her husband, Paul. Her publications for adults include The Blue Ridge Tunnel: A Remarkable Engineering Feat in Antebellum Virginia (History Press, 2014), The Virginia Blue Ridge Railroad (History Press, 2015), and Slave Labor on Virginia’s Blue Ridge Railroad (History Press, 2020).

Reviews

[Renee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mary E. Lyons is an excellent biographer. I really appreciated the way that she set Deep Blues in the historical context of slavery, reconstruction, and the changing face of the south in the 20th century.

Mary E. Lyons also does not shy away from the harsh realities of history at the time. I, as an adult reader of 35, learned things about the Klu Klux Klans activities in Alabama post Civil War that I had not learned about until now.

The primary joy of this book for me was how many pictures by Bill Traylor were included in the book. I will never stop being in awe of his work. His drawings are so lively, so saturated, so uniquely his own.

[hhhhhhhhh]

A biography for kids (or new readers) about the great Bill Traylor.