Worcester State College is proud to be the future home of the Milton Meltzer Collection, as the estate of the late Milton Meltzer, a distinguished author of nearly 100 books for children who was raised in Worcester, has given his personal library of over 5,000 volumes to the College.
Milton, a graduate of Classical High School, won a scholarship to Columbia University at age 17 and lived and worked in New York City. His young adult works address such issues as poverty, religion, crime, peace, discrimination, and slavery. Milton’s literary accolades include the American Library Association’s Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal. Five of his books have been finalists for the National Book Award.
His daughter Amy of Cambridge attended a 2007 dedication in the library, which coincided with the release of Meltzer’s novel Tough Times. “Surprise, delight, direction, all these are the strength of books,” Milton wrote (and Amy read on his behalf) for the occasion. “And best of all, the longer I live, the truer it is that books do not age, the way I do. They continue to speak, long after the writers and the readers of their own time are gone.”
Sadly, Milton passed away this fall, but his legacy will live on at Worcester State through his collection.