Robert Coles, Pulitzer-Winning Child Psychiatrist, Is Dead at 97

Article excerpt

Robert Coles, the Harvard psychiatrist whose five-volume "Children of Crisis" series gave voice to American children navigating poverty, racism, and social upheaval, died at 97. Between 1967 and 1977, Coles conducted thousands of interviews with children across the country, from Appalachia to the Mississippi Delta to Boston's busing crisis, producing work that won the Pulitzer Prize and established him as a towering figure in child psychiatry. His method was radical for its time: he simply listened to what children had to say about their lives, their fears, their moral understanding. The series became a landmark in how Americans understood childhood and social inequality.