"Harold Keith won the 1958 John Newbery Medal for his Rifles for Watie, a young adult novel about the Civil War. The Oklahoma native received a master's degree in history from the University of Oklahoma and became the university's first sports publicity director. He remained at OU for thirty-nine years, introducing many innovations to that office and establishing himself as an institution in the field. In 1951 he received the Helms Foundation Award as outstanding sports publicity director in the nation. Keith was the author of sixteen books, as well as a noted historian, long distance runner, and barber shop quartet singer. In 1997 Keith was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Oklahoma Center for the Book. Just before the publication of Chico & Dan, Mr. Keith died at the age of ninety-four."