V. M. (Virgil Mores) Hillyer

Born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, in 1875, Virgil Mores Hillyer grew up in Washington, D.C., and later graduated from Harvard in 1897. He became an educator as well as a writer, and is closely associated with the Calvert School in Baltimore, where he served as headmaster.

Hillyer is remembered above all for writing history for children in a way that felt friendly, direct, and easy to follow. His best-known work, A Child's History of the World, was designed to help young readers understand the broad sweep of history through storytelling rather than heavy detail.

He died in 1931, but his books continued to circulate widely afterward. Readers still turn to them for their warm, old-fashioned voice and for the ambition behind them: to make big subjects feel open and interesting to children.