Margaret Wise Brown (May 23, 1910 – November 13, 1952) was an American writer of

children's books A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger ...

, including ''

Goodnight Moon ''Goodnight Moon'' is an American children's book written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd. It was published on September 3, 1947, and is a highly acclaimed bedtime story. This book is the second in Brown and Hurd's "cl ...

'' and '' The Runaway Bunny'', both illustrated by Clement Hurd. She has been called "the laureate of the nursery" for her achievements.

Life and career

Brown was born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, beh ...

, the middle child of three of Maude Margaret (Johnson) and Robert Bruce Brown. She was the granddaughter of politician

Benjamin Gratz Brown Benjamin Gratz Brown (May 28, 1826December 13, 1885) was an American politician. He was a U.S. Senator, the 20th Governor of Missouri, and the Liberal Republican and Democratic Party vice presidential candidate in the presidential election of ...

. Her parents had an unhappy marriage. She was initially raised in Brooklyn's Greenpoint neighborhood, and attended Chateau Brilliantmont

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

in Lausanne,

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

in 1923, while her parents were living in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of the ...

, Connecticut. In 1925, she attended

The Kew-Forest School The Kew-Forest School is an independent, co-ed, college preparatory school for students in grades Pre-Kindergarten-Grade 12. The school was established in 1918 primarily for residents of Forest Hills and Kew Gardens, Queens, New York. Notable ...

. She began attending Dana Hall School in

Wellesley, Massachusetts Wellesley () is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Wellesley is part of Greater Boston. The population was 29,550 at the time of the 2020 census. Wellesley College, Babson College, and a campus of Massachusetts Bay Commun ...

, in 1926, where she did well in athletics. After graduation in 1928, Brown went on to

Hollins College Hollins University is a private university in Hollins, Virginia. Founded in 1842 as Valley Union Seminary in the historical settlement of Botetourt Springs, it is one of the oldest institutions of higher education for women in the United States. ...

Roanoke, Virginia Roanoke ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 100,011, making it the List of cities in Virginia, 8th most populous city in t ...

. Brown was an avid, lifelong beagler and was noted for her ability to keep pace, on foot, with the hounds. Following her graduation with a B.A. in English from Hollins in 1932, Brown worked as a teacher and also studied art. While working at the Bank Street Experimental School in New York City she started writing books for children. Bank Street promoted a new approach to children's education and literature, emphasizing the real world and the "here and now".Fernando, Anne E
"IN THE GREAT GREEN ROOM: MARGARET WISE BROWN AND MODERNISM,"
''Public Books'' (November 17, 2015). Accessed May 2, 2016. This philosophy influenced Brown's work; she was also inspired by the poet

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...

, whose literary style influenced Brown's own writing. Brown's first published children's book was ''When the Wind Blew'', published in 1937 by

Harper & Brothers Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City. History J. & J. Harper (1817–1833) James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...

. Impressed by Brown's "here and now" style, W. R. Scott hired her as his first editor in 1938.DISCOVERING THE UNEXPECTED: THE MARGARET WISE BROWN COLLECTION AT WYNDHAM ROBERTSON LIBRARY, HOLLINS UNIVERSITY BY BETH S. HARRIS https://ejournals.lib.vt.edu/valib/article/view/1138/1475#n4 . Through Scott, she published the ''Noisy Book'' series among others. As editor at Scott, one of Brown's first projects was to recruit contemporary authors to write children's books for the company.

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...

and

John Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer and the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature winner "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social ...

neglected to respond, but Brown's hero Gertrude Stein accepted the offer. Stein's book ''The World is Round'' was illustrated by Clement Hurd, who had previously teamed with Brown on W. R. Scott's ''Bumble Bugs and Elephants'', considered "perhaps the first modern board book for babies". Brown and Hurd later teamed on the children's book classics '' The Runaway Bunny'' and ''

'', published by Harper. In addition to publishing a number of Brown's books, under her editorship W. R. Scott published Edith Thacher Hurd's first book, ''Hurry Hurry'', and Esphyr Slobodkina's classic ''

Caps for Sale ''Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business'' is a children's picture book, written and illustrated by Esphyr Slobodkina and published by W. R. Scott in 1940. Summary Based on a folktale, the story follows a mu ...

''. The New York Public Library initially banned '' Good Night Moon'' due to the influence of retired librarian Anne Carrol Moore, who reportedly "hated" the book. It wasn't until 1972 that the book was finally made available to patrons. From 1944 to 1946, Doubleday published three picture books written by Brown under the pseudonym "Golden MacDonald" (coopted from her friend's handyman) and illustrated by

Leonard Weisgard Leonard Joseph Weisgard (December 13, 1916 – January 14, 2000) was an American writer and illustrator of more than 200 children's books. He is known best for his collaborations with writer Margaret Wise Brown. Biography Weisgard was born ...

. Weisgard was a runner-up for the

Caldecott Medal The Randolph Caldecott Medal, frequently shortened to just the Caldecott, annually recognizes the preceding year's "most distinguished American picture book for children". It is awarded to the illustrator by the Association for Library Service ...

in 1946, and he won the 1947 Medal for ''Little Lost Lamb'' and '' The Little Island''. Two more of their collaborations appeared in 1953 and 1956, after Brown's death. ''The Little Fisherman'', illustrated by Dahlov Ipcar, was published in 1945. ''The Little Fur Family'', illustrated by Garth Williams, was published in 1946. Early in the 1950s she wrote several books for the

Little Golden Books Little Golden Books is a series of children's books, published since 1942. '' The Poky Little Puppy'', the eighth release in the series, is the top-selling children's book of all time in the United States.. Many other Little Golden Books have ...

series, including '' The Color Kittens'', ''Mister Dog'', and '' Scuppers The Sailor Dog.''

Personal life and death

While at Hollins she was briefly engaged. She dated, for some time, an unknown "good, quiet man from Virginia," had a long-running affair with William Gaston,Gaston, 152. and had a summer romance with Preston Schoyer. In the summer of 1940, Brown began a long-term relationship with Blanche Oelrichs (

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

Michael Strange), poet/playwright, actress, and the former wife of

John Barrymore John Barrymore (born John Sidney Blyth; February 14 or 15, 1882 – May 29, 1942) was an American actor on stage, screen and radio. A member of the Drew and Barrymore theatrical families, he initially tried to avoid the stage, and briefly att ...

. The relationship, which began as a mentoring one, eventually became romantic and included co-habiting at 10 Gracie Square in Manhattan beginning in 1943. As a studio, they used Cobble Court, a wooden house later moved to Charles Street. Oelrichs, who was almost 20 years Brown's senior, died in 1950. Brown went by various nicknames in different circles of friends. To her Dana Hall and Hollins friends she was "Tim," as her hair was the color of

timothy hay Timothy (''Phleum pratense'') is an abundant perennial grass native to most of Europe except for the Mediterranean region. It is also known as timothy-grass, meadow cat's-tail or common cat's tail. It is a member of the genus '' Phleum'', consi ...

. To Bank Street friends she was "Brownie." To William Gaston she was "Goldie," in keeping with the use of Golden MacDonald as the author of ''The Little Island.'' In 1952, Brown met James Stillman 'Pebble' Rockefeller Jr. at a party, and they became engaged. Later that year, while on a book tour in Nice, France, she died at 42 of an

embolism An embolism is the lodging of an embolus, a blockage-causing piece of material, inside a blood vessel. The embolus may be a blood clot (thrombus), a fat globule (fat embolism), a bubble of air or other gas (gas embolism), amniotic fluid (amni ...

, shortly after surgery for a ruptured appendix. Kicking up her leg to show her nurses how well she was feeling caused a blood clot that had formed in her leg to dislodge and travel to her heart. A 1992 profile in the New Yorker "The Radical Woman Behind 'Goodnight Moon,'" featured a trip through Brown's "Only House" island cottage in

Vinalhaven, Maine Vinalhaven is a town on the larger of the two Fox Islands in Knox County, Maine, United States. Vinalhaven is also used to refer to the island itself. The population was 1,279 at the 2020 census. It is home to a thriving lobster fishery and ho ...

which still retains elements of her picture books. The profile includes an interview with Rockefeller, noting that he was one of the few living people who'd known Brown well. They had planned to marry in Panama and honeymoon aboard his boat, the Mandalay, but she did not recover. "She was so full in her own life," Rockefeller told the interviewer. "And yet there must have been a lack, somewhere along the line. But whether she would like an ordinary marriage, with children—I just couldn't really see her in that." In 2022, Rockefeller penned a memoir called ''Wayfarer,'' about his own long life of adventure, including his memories of Brown. By the time of Brown's death, she had authored well over one hundred books. Her ashes were scattered at her island home, "The Only House," in

Legacy

Brown bequeathed the royalties to many of her books including ''Goodnight Moon'' and ''The Runaway Bunny'' to Albert Clarke, the son of a neighbor who was nine years old when she died. In 2000, reporter Joshua Prager detailed in ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' the troubled life of Clarke, who has squandered the millions of dollars the books have earned him and who believes that Brown was his mother, a claim others dismiss.Prager, Joshua
"Runaway Money: A Children's Classic, A 9-Year-Old-Boy And a Fateful Bequest – For Albert Clarke, the Rise Of 'Goodnight Moon' Is No Storybook Romance – Broken Homes, Broken Noses"
. ''The Wall Street Journal'', September 8, 2000. Retrieved 2016-03-21. Brown left behind over 70 unpublished manuscripts. After unsuccessfully trying to sell them, her sister Roberta Brown Rauch kept them in a cedar trunk for decades. In 1991, a future biographer, Amy Gary of WaterMark Inc., rediscovered the paper-clipped bundles, more than 500 typewritten pages in all, and set about getting the stories published. Many of Brown's books have been re-issued with new illustrations decades after their original publication. Many more of her books are still in print with the original illustrations. Her books have been translated into several languages. Full-length biographies on Brown have been written by Leonard S. Marcus (Harper Paperbacks, 1999), and by Amy Gary (Flatiron Books, 2017). There are also several biographies for children, including by Carol Greene (Rookie Biographies, 1994), Jill C. Wheeler (Checkerboard Books, 2006), Mac Barnett (Harper Collins, 2019), and Candice Ransom (William B Eerdmans, 2021). Claudia H. Pearson published a Freudian analysis of Brown's "classic series" of bunny books, entitled ''Have a Carrot'' (Look Again Press, 2010).

Selected works

Big Red Barn, illustrated by Felicia Bond, children's book illustrator

During her lifetime, Brown essentially had four publishers:

, W. R. Scott, Doubleday, and

. The books written for Doubleday were published under the pseudonym "Golden MacDonald". All were unpaged picture books illustrated by

. Two appeared after her death. * ''When the Wind Blew'', illus. Rosalie Slocum (Harper & Brothers, 1937); re-issued by HarperCollins in 1986 illus. Geoffrey Hayes * ''Bumble Bugs and Elephants: a Big and Little Book'', illus. Clement Hurd (W. R. Scott, 1938) * ''The Little Fireman'', illus. Esphyr Slobodkina (W. R. Scott, 1938) * ''Noisy Book'' series **''The Noisy Book'', illus.

(W. R. Scott, 1939) ** ''The Country Noisy Book'', illus. Leonard Weisgard (W. R. Scott, 1940) ** ''The Seashore Noisy Book'', illus. Leonard Weisgard (W. R. Scott, 1941) ** ''The Indoor Noisy Book'', illus. Leonard Weisgard (W. R. Scott, 1942) **''The Noisy Bird Book,'' illus. Leonard Weisgard (W. R. Scott, 1943) **''The Winter Noisy Book'', illus. Charles Green Shaw (W. R. Scott, 1947) **''The Quiet Noisy Book'', illus. Leonard Weisgard (Harper, 1950) **''The Summer Noisy Book'', illus. Leonard Weisgard (Harper, 1951) * ''Baby Animals'', illus. Mary Cameron (Random House, 1941) * '' The Runaway Bunny'', illus. Clement Hurd (Harper, 1942) * ''Don't Frighten the Lion'', illus. H. A. Rey (Harper, 1942) * ''Big Dog, Little Dog'', illus. Leonard Weisgard (Doubleday, Doran and Company, 1943) ‡ * ''Horses'', illus. Dorothy F. Wagstaff (Harper, 1944), as by "Timothy Hay" and "Wag", * '' Red Light Green Light'', illus. Leonard Weisgard (Doubleday, 1944) ‡ * '' A Child's Good Night Book'', illus.

Jean Charlot Louis Henri Jean Charlot (February 8, 1898 – March 20, 1979) was a French-born American painter and illustrator, active mainly in Mexico and the United States. Life Charlot was born in Paris. His father, Henri, owned an import-export busine ...

(W. R. Scott, 1944) * ''They All Saw It'', illus. Ylla (Harper, 1944) * ''The Little Fisherman'', illus. Dahlov Ipcar (W. R. Scott, 1945). Reissued 2015. * ''Little Lost Lamb'', illus. Leonard Weisgard (Doubleday, 1945) ‡ * '' The Little Island'', illus. Leonard Weisgard (Doubleday, 1946) ‡ * '' Little Fur Family'', illus. Garth Williams (Harper, 1946) * ''The Man in the Manhole and the Fix-It Men'', illus. Bill Ballantine (New York: W. R. Scott, 1946), written by Brown and Edith Thacher Hurd as "Juniper Sage", * ''

'', illus. Clement Hurd (Harper, 1947) * ''The Golden Sleepy Book'', illus. Garth Williams (Golden Classic, 1948) * ''The Golden Egg Book'', illus. Leonard Weisgard (Little Golden Books, 1947) * ''The Sleepy Little Lion'', illus. Ylla (Harper, 1947) * '' The Important Book'', illus. Leonard Weisgard (Harper, 1949) * ''The Little Cowboy'', illus. Esphyr Slobodkina (W. R. Scott, 1948) * ''The Little Farmer'', illus. Esphyr Slobodkina (W. R. Scott, 1948) * ''Wait till the Moon is Full'', illus. Garth Williams (Harper, 1948) * '' The Color Kittens'', illus. Alice and Martin Provensen (Little Golden Books, 1949) * ''Two Little Miners'', with Edith Thacher Hurd, illus.

Richard Scarry Richard McClure Scarry (June 5, 1919 – April 30, 1994) was an American children's author and illustrator who published over 300 books with total sales of over 100 million worldwide. He is best known for his ''Best Ever'' book series that take ...

(Little Golden Books, 1949) * '' My World'', illus. Clement Hurd (Harper, 1949) * ''O Said the Squirrel'', illus. Ylla (London: Harvill Press, 1950) * ''Fox Eyes'', illus. Garth Williams (

Pantheon Books Pantheon Books is an American book publishing imprint with editorial independence. It is part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.Random House, Inc. Datamonitor Company Profiles Authority: Retrieved 6/20/2007, from EBSCO Host Business Source ...

, 1951) * ''The Duck'', illus. Ylla (Harper; Harvill, 1952) * ''Mister Dog: The Dog Who Belonged to Himself'', illus. Garth Williams (Little Golden Books, 1952) * ''Doctor Squash, The Doll Doctor'', illus David Hitch (Random House, Inc, 1952)

Published posthumously

* ''Little Frightened Tiger'', illus. Leonard Weisgard (Doubleday, 1953) ‡ * '' Scuppers The Sailor Dog'', illus. Garth Williams (Little Golden Books, 1953) * ''Big Red Barn'', illus. Rosella Hartman (W. R. Scott, 1956); re-issued by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

in 1989 illus.

Felicia Bond Felicia Bond (born July 18, 1954 in Yokohama, Japan) is an American writer and illustrator of numerous books for children. She is the illustrator of all the ''If You Give...'' series written by Laura Numeroff and published by HarperCollins Child ...

* ''The Little Brass Band'', illus. Clement Hurd (Harper & Brothers, 1955) * ''Three Little Animals'', illus. Garth Williams (Harper, 1956) * ''Home for a Bunny'', illus. Garth Williams (Golden Press, 1956) * ''Whistle for the Train'', illus. Leonard Weisgard (Doubleday, 1956) ‡ * '' The Dead Bird'', illus. Remy Charlip (Addison-Wesley Publishing, 1958), re-issued in 2016 with illustrations by

Christian Robinson Christian Robinson (born August 2, 1986) is an American illustrator of children's books and an animator. He is based in Sacramento, California and has worked with The Sesame Street Workshop and Pixar Animation Studios. He graduated from the Calif ...

* ''Under the Sun and the Moon and Other Poems'', illus. Tom Leonard ( Hyperion, 1993) * ''Sleepy ABC'', illus. Esphyr Slobodkina (HarperCollins, 1994) * ''Another Important Book'', illus. Christopher Raschka (Joanna Cotler Books, 1999) * ''Bunny's Noisy Book'', illus. Lisa McCue ( Hyperion, 2000) * ''The Fierce Yellow Pumpkin'', illus.

Richard Egielski Richard Egielski (born July 16, 1952 in New York City) is an American illustrator and writer who has worked on more than fifty children's picture books, eight of which he authored. He received his education at Parson's School of Design. Career ...

(HarperCollins, 2003) * ''The Fathers Are Coming Home'', illus. Stephen Savage ( Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2010) * ''Count to 10 with a Mouse'', illus. Kirsten Richards (

Parragon Parragon Books Ltd, a United Kingdom publishing company, was formed in 1988 by friends Guy Parr and Paul Anderson. In 2001, it became part of D. C. Thomson & Co. History Parragon began its early years by developing business through overstocks ...

, 2012) * ''Goodnight Little One'', illus. Rebecca Elliott (

, 2012) * ''Away in My Airplane'', illus. Henry Fisher (

, 2013) * ''The Diggers'', illus. Antoine Corbineau (

, 2013) * ''Sleep Tight, Sleepy Bears'', illus. Julie Clay (

, 2013) * ''One More Rabbit'', illus. Emma Levey (

, 2014) * ''The Noon Balloon'', illus. Lorena Alvarez (

, 2014) * ''Goodnight Songs'', multiple illustrators ( Sterling Children's Books, 2014) * ''Goodnight Songs: a Celebration of the Seasons'', ( Sterling Children's Books, 2014) * ''Love Song of the Little Bear'', illus. Katy Hudson (

, 2015) * ''The Find It Book'', illus. Lisa Sheehan (

, 2015) * ''Goodnight Little One'', illus. Rebecca Elliot (

, 2016) * ''Good Day, Good Night'', illus. Loren Long (

, 2017) * ''Be Brave, Little Tiger!'', illus. Jeane Claude (

, 2017) * ''The Happy Little Rabbit'', illus. Emma Levey (

, 2017) ‡ Published under the pen name "Golden MacDonald."

References

Citations

General bibliography

* "Beyond the Top 50: Toddler Tales", ''USA Today'' (September 12, 1996). * "Brown, Margaret Wise 1910-1952". ''Something About the Author'' vol. 100 (1999), pp. 35–39. * Churnin, Nancy. "Goodnight and Sweet Dreams", ''The Dallas Morning News'' (January 5, 2001). * Fleischman, John. "Shakespeare of the Sandbox Set", ''Parents'' vol. 63 (July 1988), pp. 92–96. * Gary, Amy. ''The Great Green Room: The Brilliant Bold Life of Margaret Wise Brown'', Flatiron Books (2017) * Gaston, Bibi. ''The Loveliest Woman in America: A Tragic Actress, Her Lost Diaries, and Her Granddaughter's Search for Home'', William Morrow (2008). * Groth, Chuck. "An Heirloom for Fans of ''Goodnight Moon''", ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' (February 19, 1995). * Hurd, Clement. "Remembering Margaret Wise Brown", ''Horn Book'' (October 1983). * Marcus, Leonard S., ''Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon'', Beacon Press (February 1992). * Mainiero, Lina. "Margaret Wise Brown." ''American Women Writers: Volume 1''. Frederick Unger Press. (1979), pp. 254 - 257. * Mitchell, Lucy Sprague Mitchell. "Margaret Wise Brown, 1910-1952", ''Bank Street'' (1953). * Pate, Nancy. "Good Gosh: ''Goodnight Moon'' is 50", ''Orlando Sentinel'' (February 24, 1997). * * Pichey, Martha. "Bunny Dearest", ''Vanity Fair'' (December 2000), pp. 172–87.

External links

http://www.margaretwisebrownarchive.com Fan website with Bibliography includes Adapted Stories, Articles & Essays, Anthologies, Biographies, Collections, Ghost Written ,Periodicals,Picture Books all with Pictures of covers.
Timothy HayGolden MacDonald
an
Juniper Sage
at Library of Congress Authorities, with catalog records {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Margaret Wise 1910 births 1952 deaths American children's writers Bisexual women Bisexual writers Deaths from embolism Hollins University alumni American LGBT writers LGBT people from New York (state) Writers from Brooklyn People from Windham County, Connecticut Writers from Connecticut Bank Street College of Education alumni People from Vinalhaven, Maine People from Greenpoint, Brooklyn Dana Hall School alumni 20th-century LGBT people