The Labors of Hercules Beal

Gary D. Schmidt is a bestselling author of over 40 books, ranging from children’s nonfiction to young adult novels to academic texts. Best known for his two Newbery Honor Books, Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy and The Wednesday Wars, as well as the National Book Award Finalist, Okay for Now, Schmidt also contributed to and co-edited the short story collection A Little Bit Super. A Michigan resident, he is also a retired English professor. In an interview about The Labors of Hercules Beal, Schmidt notes that, as a kid, he would visit his grandmother on Cape Cod. There, he frequented a dune that gave him a view of Cape Cod Bay and the Atlantic Ocean simultaneously, which inspired both the setting and the characterization of the protagonist. He recalls Thoreau’s idea that “a man can stand on Cape Cod and put all America behind him […] It sounds like strength […] but it also sounds awfully lonely” (Sutton, Roger. “Gary Schmidt Talks With Roger.” The Horn Book, Inc., 20 Oct. 2023). Hercules Beal embodies this loneliness as he navigates life after the death of his parents.