Brown was an avid, lifelongbeagler and was noted for her ability to keep pace, on foot, with the hounds.[7]
Following her graduation with a B.A. in English[1] from Hollins in 1932, Brown worked as a teacher and also studied art. While working at theBank 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".[8] This philosophy influenced Brown's work; she was also inspired by the poetGertrude Stein, whose literary style influenced Brown's own writing.[8]
Brown's first published children's book wasWhen the Wind Blew, published in 1937 byHarper & Brothers. Impressed by Brown's "here and now" style,W. R. Scott hired her as his first editor in 1938.[9] Through Scott, she published theNoisy 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 andJohn Steinbeck neglected to respond, but Brown's hero,Gertrude Stein, accepted the offer.[8] Stein's bookThe World is Round was illustrated byClement Hurd,[10] who had previously teamed with Brown on W. R. Scott'sBumble Bugs and Elephants, considered "perhaps the first modern board book for babies".[11] Brown and Hurd later teamed on the children's book classicsThe Runaway Bunny andGoodnight Moon, published by Harper. In addition to publishing a number of Brown's books, under her editorship, W. R. Scott publishedEdith Thacher Hurd's first book,Hurry Hurry, andEsphyr Slobodkina's classicCaps for Sale.[citation needed]
The New York Public Library initially bannedGoodnight Moon due to the influence of retired librarianAnne Carrol Moore, who reportedly "hated" the book. It wasn't until 1972 that the book was finally made available to patrons.[12]
From 1944 to 1946,Doubleday published three picture books written by Brown under the pseudonym "Golden MacDonald" (coopted from her friend's handyman)[7] and illustrated byLeonard Weisgard. Weisgard was a runner-up for theCaldecott Medal in 1946, and he won the 1947 Medal forLittle Lost Lamb andThe Little Island. Two more of their collaborations appeared in 1953 and 1956, after Brown's death.The Little Fisherman, illustrated byDahlov Ipcar, was published in 1945.The Little Fur Family, illustrated byGarth Williams, was published in 1946. Early in the 1950s, she wrote several books for theLittle Golden Books series, includingThe Color Kittens,Mister Dog, andScuppers The Sailor Dog.[citation needed]
While at Hollins, Brown was briefly engaged.[13] She dated, for some time, an unknown "good, quiet man from Virginia",[14] had a long-running affair with William Gaston,[15][16] and had a summer romance withPreston Schoyer.[17]
In the summer of 1940, Brown began a long-term relationship withBlanche Oelrichs (pen name Michael Strange), poet/playwright, actress, and the former wife ofJohn Barrymore. The relationship, which began as a mentoring one, eventually became romantic and included cohabiting at 10 Gracie Square in New York, beginning in 1943.[18] 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.[citation needed]
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 oftimothy hay.[19] To Bank Street friends, she was "Brownie".[20] To William Gaston she was "Goldie", in keeping with the use of Golden MacDonald as the author ofThe Little Island.[16]
In 1952, Brown met James Stillman 'Pebble' Rockefeller Jr. at a party, and they became engaged. Later that year, while on a book tour inNice,France, she died at 42 of anembolism, 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.[21]
A 2022 profile in the New Yorker, entitled "The Radical Woman Behind 'Goodnight Moon'", featured a trip through Brown's "Only House" island cottage inVinalhaven, Maine, 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.[22] Rockefeller told the interviewer:
"She was so full in her own life. 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."[22]
In 2018, Rockefeller released a memoir calledWayfarer, about his own long life of adventure, including his memories of Brown.[23]
By the time of her death, Brown had authored well over 100 books. Her ashes were scattered at her island home, "The Only House", inVinalhaven, Maine.[21]
Brown bequeathed the royalties to many of her books includingGoodnight Moon andThe Runaway Bunny to Albert Clarke, the son of a neighbor who was nine years old when she died. In 2000, reporterJoshua Prager detailed inThe Wall Street Journal the troubled life of Clarke, who squandered the millions of dollars the books had earned him and who believed that Brown was his mother, a claim others dismiss.[24] Clarke passed away in 2018. His four children now hold the royalty rights, which will expire in 2043.[25]
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.[26]
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 byLeonard S. Marcus (Harper Paperbacks, 1999) and by Amy Gary (Flatiron Books, 2017).[27] There are also several biographies for children, including by Carol Greene (Rookie Biographies, 1994), Jill C. Wheeler (Checkerboard Books, 2006), Mac Barnett (HarperCollins, 2019), and Candice Ransom (William B Eerdmans, 2021). Claudia H. Pearson published a Freudian analysis of Brown's "classic series" of bunny books, entitledHave a Carrot (Look Again Press, 2010).[28]
In 2016,Hollins University honored her by establishing the Margaret Wise Brown Prize in Children’s Literature.[29]
Fleischman, John. "Shakespeare of the Sandbox Set",Parents vol. 63 (July 1988), pp. 92–96.
Gary, Amy.In the Great Green Room: The Brilliant Bold Life of Margaret Wise Brown, Flatiron Books (2017)ISBN978-1-25006536-0
Gaston, Bibi.The Loveliest Woman in America: A Tragic Actress, Her Lost Diaries, and Her Granddaughter's Search for Home, William Morrow (2008).ISBN978-0-06-085770-7
Groth, Chuck. "An Heirloom for Fans ofGoodnight 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).ISBN978-0-8070-7048-2
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).
Margaret Wise Brown Archive – fan website with bibliography of Adapted Stories, Articles & Essays, Anthologies, Biographies, Collections, Ghost Written, Periodicals, and Picture Books, all with cover images
