The Greatest: Muhammad Ali

Content Warning: This section discusses racism.

Myers was a prolific author whose works were mostly intended for children and young adults. Born in 1937, he left his native West Virginia at the age of two, when his mother died and he was sent to Harlem to be raised by his father’s ex-wife and her husband. His experience of living in an underprivileged, predominantly Black neighborhood informs his exploration of racism in America in his books. In The Greatest, he discusses Ali from the perspective of himself as a teenager and constructs himself as an example of a Black child who benefitted from such a role model.

He was fascinated with books from a young age, but with a great deal of instability in his home, he did not finish high school and joined the army at 17. Following his military service, he became aware of the lack of Black representation in literature for young people and began a 45-year career as a writer, which would ultimately produce over 100 books. Among his most famous works is the graphic novel Monster (1999), which tells the story of a teenage Black boy accused of murder and is largely in the format of an imagined movie screenplay.