Under the Jolly Roger

L. A. Meyer was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania in 1942. He received a B.A. in English literature from the University of Florida in Gainesville and soon after, enlisted in the U.S. Navy for a four year-stint. He worked as a social worker and then published two picture books, The Gypsy Bears and The Clean Air and Peaceful Contentment Dirigible Airline, before receiving his M.F.A. in painting from Boston University in 1973.

He taught high school art in Massachusetts for seven years and then left to open art and design shops. His first novel for young readers, Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy, was published in 2002. It became the first book in the Bloody Jack Adventure series. He died from Hodgkin's lymphoma on July 29, 2014 at the age of 71.

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