John Louis Beatty

John and Patricia Beatty were married American writers, an academic historian and a children's librarian. They wrote several books together until John Beatty's death in 1975, after which Patricia Beatty continued to write until her death in 1991.

John Louis Beatty was born on January 24, 1922 in Portland, Oregon and later became a history professor. He wrote ten books with his wife Patricia and helped edit a two-volume historical text entitled Heritage of Western Civilization. Beatty served as an assistant professor of history and humanities at the University of California, Riverside and died on March 23, 1975 in Riverside, California.

Patricia Beatty was born August 26, 1922, in Portland, Oregon. She spent part of her life in the Pacific Northwest and occasionally resided on Indian reservations. Beatty graduated from Reed College in Portland and has worked as a children's librarian and a high school teacher. She has written fifty books, ten of which were with her first husband John Beatty. She remarried in 1975 to Carl Uhr, an economics professor at the University of California. She died on July 9, 1991.

For Patricia Beatty

• 1972 Jane Addams Children's Book Award, nomination for Lupita Manana
• 1974 California Council Medal from the Southern California Council on Literature for Children and Young People, won
• 1976 California Council Medal from the Southern California Council on Literature for Children and Young People, won
• 1983 Literature Medal from the Southern California Council on Literature for Children and Young People for Jonathan down Under, won
• 1984 Western Writers of America Award, won
• 1987 Western Writers of America Award, won
• 1988 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction for Charley Skedaddle, won

For both Beattys

• 1963 New York Times One Hundred Outstanding Books for Young People for At the Seven Stars
• 1965 Commonwealth Club of California Medal for best juvenile by a California author for Campion Towers
• 1966 Horn Book honor list for A Donkey for the King
• 1967 Southern California Council on Children's and Young People's Literature Medal for The Young Dirk

The John and Patricia Beatty Award is an award given by the California Library Association. The award was sponsored by Baker and Taylor until 2012 and Better World Books beginning in 2013. The Beatty Award "honors the author of a distinguished book for children or young adults that best promotes an awareness of California and its people". Patricia Beatty contributed towards the initial funding of the award, which was named after her and her husband. The award was first established in 1990 and the winner of the award receives a prize of $500 and an engraved plaque.