Margaret Wise Brown

Margaret Wise Brown (May 23, 1910 – November 13, 1952) was an American writer of children's books, including Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny, both illustrated by Clement Hurd.

She has been called "the laureate of the nursery" for her achievements.

Brown was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, the middle child of three of Maude Margaret (Johnson) and Robert Bruce Brown.

She was the granddaughter of politician Benjamin Gratz Brown.

Her parents had an unhappy marriage.

She was initially raised in Brooklyn's Greenpoint neighborhood, and attended Chateau Brilliantmont boarding school in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1923, while her parents were living in India and Canterbury, Connecticut.

In 1925, she attended The Kew-Forest School.

She began attending Dana Hall School in Wellesley, Massachusetts, in 1926, where she did well in athletics.

After graduation in 1928, Brown went on to Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia.

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".

This philosophy influenced Brown's work; she was also inspired by the poet Gertrude Stein, 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.

Impressed by Brown's "here and now" style, W. R. Scott hired her as his first editor in 1938.

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 and John Steinbeck 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 Goodnight Moon, 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.

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.

In the summer of 1940, Brown began a long-term relationship with Blanche Oelrichs (pen name Michael Strange), poet/playwright, actress, and the former wife of John Barrymore.

The relationship, which began as a mentoring one, eventually became romantic and included co-habiting at 10 Gracie Square in New York beginning in 1943.

As a studio, they used Cobble Court, a wooden house later moved to Charles Street.

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.

The Little Fisherman, illustrated by Dahlov Ipcar, was published in 1945.

Weisgard was a runner-up for the Caldecott Medal in 1946, and he won the 1947 Medal for Little Lost Lamb and The Little Island.

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

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, and had a summer romance with Preston Schoyer.

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.

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.

Two more of their collaborations appeared in 1953 and 1956, after Brown's death.

It wasn't until 1972 that the book was finally made available to patrons.