AUTHOR BIO

Charles D. Hayes is a lifelong learning advocate, a self-taught philosopher, and an author and publisher. At age 17, he dropped out of high school to join the U.S. Marines. After four years of duty he became a police officer in Dallas, Texas, and later he moved to Alaska, where he has worked for more than 20 years in the oil industry. In 1987 Hayes founded Autodidactic Press, committed to lifelong learning as the lifeblood of democracy and the key to living life to its fullest.

Early in the year 2000, his book Beyond the American Dream: Lifelong Learning and the Search for Meaning in a Postmodern World was selected by the American Library Association’s CHOICE magazine as one of the most outstanding academic books of the previous year. His other books include The Rapture of Maturity: A Legacy of Lifelong Learning, as well as Training Yourself, Proving You’re Qualified: Strategies for People without College Degrees, and Self-University: The Price of Tuition is Desire. Your Degree is a Better Life. His recent novel, Portals in a Northern Sky, has readers across the country declaring they are going to read or reread classic literature. He was a contributing writer for Creating Learning Communities, published by The Foundation for Educational Renewal.

Promoting the idea that education should be thought of not as something you get but as something you take, Hayes’ work has been featured in USA Today, Library Journal, Training Magazine, Training and Development Magazine, in the UTNE Reader, on National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation and Alaska Public Radio's Talk of Alaska.

Charles Hayes’ first book, Self-University won PMA’s Benjamin Franklin Award for nonfiction in 1990 and was called the best book on self-education of the decade by educator Ronald Gross. Hayes’ books have been featured by hundreds of radio stations and newspapers and have been reviewed by such organizations as: Across the Board, Adult Learning Magazine, The Bloomsbury Review, The Brain/Mind Bulletin, Growing Without Schooling, Life Learning Magazine, Home Education Magazine, Latina Magazine, Midwest Book Review, NAPRA Review, Publishers Weekly, Skeptical Inquirer, Training Zone, Tech Directions, and The Wall Street Business Weekly among others.

In September 2004 he began a new web site for aging baby-boomers: September University.

In 1989 Hayes inaugurated Self-University Week, held the first seven days of September every year, to celebrate the joy of lifelong learning. Autodidactic.com provides resources for self-directed learners—from advice about credentials to philosophy about the value lifelong learning brings to everyday living.