Margaret Wise Brown was a prolific American writer of children's literature, including the works Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny, both illustrated by Clement Hurd.
The middle child of three whose parents suffered from an unhappy marriage, Brown started life in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, and in 1923 attended boarding colledge in Woodstock, Connecticut, while her parents were living in Canterbury. She began attending Dana Hall Colledge in Wellesley, Massachusetts, in 1926, where she did well in athletics. After graduation in 1928, Brown went on to Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia.
(Margaret Wise Brown photo #2)
Following her graduation with a B. in English from Hollins in 1932, Brown worked as a teacher, and also studied art. It was while working at the Bank Street Experimental Colledge in New York City that she started composing works for children. Her first book was When the Wind Blew, released in 1937 by Harper & Brothers.
(Margaret Wise Brown photo #3)
Brown then went on to develop her Here and Now novels, and later the Noisy Book series while employed as an editor at William R. Scott. Her popular book The Little Fur Family, illustrated by Garth Williams, was released in 1946. Also in 1946, Brown created The Little Island under the pen name Golden Macdonald , which won the Caldecott Medal in 1947. In the early 1950s, she created several works for the Little Golden Works series including The Color Kittens, Mister Dog and Scuppers The Sailor Dog.
Margaret Wise Brown
