Douglas DeVries

Background

Douglas DeVries was born on September 4, 1933, in Lansing, Illinois, United States.

Education

Douglas DeVries attended Calvin College, where he became a Bachelor of Arts in 1960. Also, he attended the University of Colorado, where he got a Master of Arts degree in American history in 1966. He continued his education at the University of Iowa, got a Master of Arts degree in Elementary education in 1973.

Career

Douglas DeVries was a teacher and administrator at Christian schools in Sheldon, Illinois, United States in 1960-1977, in Randolph, Wisconsin, United States (1977-1984), and in Anchorage, Alaska, United States (1984-1986). In the early 1980s, he took a course from the Institute of Children's Literature, but as a Christian School teacher-administrator, he found little time for writing. DeVries slowed down through heart surgery in 1987 and began his new career, writing. He writes from his apartment in Anchorage, Alaska.

Douglas DeVries's first story about Sven Olafsen, "Gold Rush Runaway," was chosen for Alaska Schools Battle of the Book. One reviewer wrote: "Including the precious young boy, Sven, added such intrigue and pizzazz to the story. His adventures and challenges, loaded with danger, kept the readers' interest, while it traced Lt. Castners expedition. A clever mix of human interest and history! Setting up his tent on Nomes beach during a driving rainstorm and hiking the four miles to Anvil Mountain allowed DeVries to gain a small but realistic experience of what the gold rushers of 1900 may have experienced. In "Fevering for Gold," DeVries uses that experience and his interest in Alaska history and writing to create another action-packed story."

Douglas DeVries once commented: "I believe that the desire to be an author has been in me for a long time. I was the only boy in a creative writing class in high school, and the only boy writing on the high school newspaper staff. Work and the military kept me from pursuing a career as a writer, or perhaps it was the idea that it wasn't something done for ‘real’ work. I became a teacher. As a teacher, I wrote articles for the local newspaper and a few short plays for my students.

Achievements

• Douglas DeVries is a famous American writer. He has authored nine books and more than 100 short stories.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Nathan's Hope

    (Nathan's Hope contrasts the Jewish hope for their promise...)

    2004
  • Fevering for Gold

    (When Sven Olafsen reads an advertisement about gold in th...)

    1999
  • Gold Rush Runaway: A Historical Novel of Alaska Exploration and Adventure

    (Runaway Sven Olafsen, age fourteen, intends to find his f...)

    1999
  • Muscles the Moose Calf

    (Muscles the Moose Calf covers the first year of Muscles' ...)

    1989
  • Muscles Visits Anchorage 1990
  • Muscles : Bull Moose from Alaska 1999
  • Winners! 2008
  • Matt Bugs Me 2005

Views

Quotations: “I prefer to write in the morning when my mind is at its full power. To beginning writers I would say this: Find the time for you to do your best writing and try to work at that time every day. Have a good grasp of the mechanics of the English language, or the language you write in. Don’t feel that you need to write a book; most of my success as a writer is from the sale of magazine stories and articles.”

"The idea to become an author surfaced in the early 1980s, and I took a correspondence course with the Institute of Children's Literature. But I still did not think of writing as my major occupation. That changed in 1987 when I decided to slow down after quadruple bypass surgery. Since 1987 writing has been my major interest. I hold a part-time position to have a steady source of income.

"As a youth, I enjoyed reading and read books from public, school, and church libraries, anything I could lay my hands on, from the "Hardy Boys" through Stevenson, Dickens, and Dumas. One of my favorite authors of historical fiction was Joseph Altshellor, and perhaps his influence is why I have turned to that genre for my writing. My young adult fiction is based on Alaskan history."

Membership

Douglas DeVries is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and America Christian Writers Association.

• Society of Children’s Book Writers , United States

• America Christian Writers Association , United States

Interests

• Writers

  Joseph Altshellor

References

• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series, Vol. 194: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Non-Fiction, Poetry, ... Motion Pictures, Television, & Other Fields
  2010