Javan

Javan is the given middle name of Steven Javan Jones. With his first and last names being so common he chose to use his middle name as a pen name. His father died two months before he was born forcing his mother to work nights as a waitress, so he seldom saw her. His older sister and brother went their own way each day after school, so he mostly grew up alone. At the age of five Javan was nearly killed in a vehicle accident which left him with permanent injuries to his upper body and restricted use of his arms. When he was home alone one of his favorite activities was to read poetry and volumes of quotations. The quotations helped him develop a positive attitude toward life and his situation. When Javan was fifteen his mother was offered a much better job in Atlanta, so she moved but kept the house in Charlotte for Javan and his sister and brother. That summer he hitch-hiked several thousand miles around the country alone. That fall he took a job at Belk Dept Store and paid his own way through high school and two years at Brevard Junior College (now Brevard College). In high school and college he did not have the money or time to date or participate in school activities, so although he worked well with the public he never had the opportunity to become comfortable with someone on a personal basis. After college Javan started a career with Eastern Airlines at the Atlanta airport where he had the opportunity to meet many people. However, his schedule of working four p.m. to midnight every day except Tuesday and Wednesday made dating difficult, but not impossible. During his eleven year career with Eastern many people passed through his life, but no one stayed for any length of time. Javan never knew whether it was his injuries or the way he grew up that made forming a relationship so difficult. While at Eastern he started writing down random thoughts about life and relationships, some directly related to his life and others because of a song, a movie, or someone else's personal story. When he would share some of his writings at work the response was usually the same, "you should put together a book". At the age of thirty-one Javan left Eastern to put his writings into a book. He sold his home and all his possessions and after a year he self-published "Footprints In The Mind", and started driving around Atlanta in his grandfather's old car putting his book out on consignment. During the months of Jan., Feb., Mar., and April of 1979 Javan and his golden retriever Brandon, slept in a sleeping bag where ever he parked his car, each day he would go to his fitness center to work out then shower and shave, then visit the stores. Each day he would try to sell a book for cash to have money to feed the dog, buy gas, and maybe get something to eat. It is considered impossible to make a living as a poet, especially a self-published poet, but it has been 35 years since Javan introduced his book to stores in Atlanta. During that time Eastern has folded, all the stores he started with in Atlanta are gone, including Waldenbooks and B. Dalton Bookseller, yet Javan and his matched set of four books are still going. He is one of America's best loved and most consistent selling poets. Through the years his books have been read on television and radio, read in churches, quoted by public speakers, quoted on the internet, and used by thousands to help express their feelings in personal letters. The books have been studied in junior high, high school, and college classrooms. They have also been used by guidance counselors, marriage counselors, and drug rehabilitation counselors. Javan has been the guest speaker at libraries, colleges, high schools, junior high schools, time-share resorts, and twice on a cruise ship. Javan has heard from thousands of people in countries all over the world telling how much the books mean to them.