MARGARET WISE BROWN

By Ryan Kundin, Sean McCue

About Margaret Wise Brown • known as “Brownie”, • was born on May 23, 1910, in Brooklyn, New York. • attended Hollins College (now Hollins University) in

Roanoke, Virginia, where she earned a B.A. in 1932• After graduating college in 1932, Brown's first ambition

was to write literature for adults; but when she entered a program for student teachers in New York, she was thrilled by the experience of working with young children.

About Margaret Wise Brown• a teacher and also worked at the Writers Laboratory of the Bureau

of Educational Experiments where she took a job as an editor of children’s books in New York City

• In 1938 she became the editor for the newly created children's department of W.R. Scott publishers. She continued as editor until 1941 when she began her full-time writing career during which she published over 100 books.

•  • Throughout Brown’s life, she had relationships with the Prince of

Spain, Michael Strange (the poet-actress Blanche Oelrichs), and a planned marriage to James Stillman Rockefeller Jr, which was disrupted due to her death of a blood clot after an unplanned surgery on November 13, 1952.

Writing Style • Margaret Wise Brown loved animals so most of her books have animals

as characters in the story.  She liked to write books that had a rhythm to them, so many of her books rhyme or repeat a word pattern. She liked to place a hard word into a story or poem because she thought this made children think harder when they are reading.

• She tried to write the way children wanted to hear a story, which often isn’t the same way an adult would tell a story. She also taught illustrators to draw the way a child saw things.

• She once stated that the author of a book didn’t seem important to her as a child; it was the story that was important. As she once said of writing, “One can but hope to make a child laugh or feel clear and happy-headed as he follows the simple rhythm to its logical end. It can jog him with the unexpected and comfort him with the familiar, lift him for a few minutes from his own problems of shoelaces that won’t tie, and busy parents and mysterious clock time, into the world of a bug or a bear or a bee or a boy living in the timeless world of a story.”

Illustration Style • She doesn’t illustrate her own books. There are a lot of

her books about animals, however, some books do have humans illustrated.

• She taught illustrators to draw like a child saw things. For example she gave a person two puppies to draw a dog.

Recognitions • Brown was the first picture-book author to achieve recognition as a writer, and

the first, according to many "to make the writing of picture books an art.”

• In addition to her picture books, many of her works were published in educational textbooks and some were even set to music.

• There is a Margaret Wise Brown Collection that is housed in the Special Collections Department at Wyndham Robertson Library, Hollins University. Brown’s papers, along with the library’s collection of her books, comprise one of the most comprehensive collections of Margaret Wise Brown materials in the country. Behind this unique collection is the fascinating story of Brown’s prolific career and how the manuscripts found their way to Hollins University.

• The Margaret Wise Brown book collection at Hollins, numbering more than 270 volumes in thirteen different languages, is an excellent example of texts and illustrations from has been described as the Golden Age of children’s book publishing in America.

Fun Facts• She spent her first royalty check on an entire flower cart full of flowers.• Brown used three pseudonyms: Timothy Hay, playfully chosen for Horses

(1947); Golden MacDonald (the name of an elderly Maine handyman Brown knew) used for all books published for Doubleday editor Margaret Lesser; and Juniper Sage (influenced by Junipero Serra's name) for her collaborations with Edith Thacher Hurd. 

• In and out of psychoanalysis due to relationship troubles• As Brown left many unfinished manuscripts when she died, her books are

still being published years after her death. Some posthumous offerings include Another Important Book (1999), a picture book showing kids the important things about being ages 1-6, Robin's Room (2002, illus. Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher), My World of Color (2002, illus. Loretta Krupinski), Sailor Boy Jig (2002), Sheep Don't Count Sheep (2003), about a lamb having trouble falling asleep until his mother tells him to count butterflies, Sneakers, the Seaside Cat (2003), The Fierce Yellow Pumpkin (2003), and A Child is Born (2003; ill. Floyd Cooper; board book).

Book list• The Children's Year (1937)• When the Wind Blew (1937)• The Noisy Book (1938)• Bumble Bugs and Elephants: A Big and Little Book (1938)• The Fish with the Deep Sea Smile (1938)• The Little Fireman (1938)• The Little Fisherman: A Fish Story (1938; illus. Dahlov Ipcar

(q.v.)• The Log of Christopher Columbus' First Voyage to America in

the Year 1492 (1938)• The Streamlined Pig (1938)• Homes in the Wilderness (1939)• Little Pig's Picnic, and Other Stories (1939)• The Noisy Book (1939)• The Comical Tragedy or Tragical Comedy of Punch & Judy

(1940)• Country Noisy Book (1940)• The Fables of La Fontaine (1940)• Baby Animals (1941)• Brer Rabbit: Stories from Uncle Remus (1941)• The Polite Penguin (1941)• The Poodle and the Sheep (1941)• The Seashore Noisy Book (1941)• Don't Frighten the Lion! (1941)

Book List• Indoor Noisy Book (1942)• Night and Day (1942)• The Runaway Bunny(1942)• Big Dog, Little Dog (1943; written as Golden MacDonald)• A Child's Good Night Book (1943)• Little Chicken (1943)• The Noisy Bird Book (1943)• SHHhhhh...BANG: a whispering book (1943)• Animals, Plants and Machines (1943; written with Lucy Sprague Mitchell)• The Big Fur Secret (1944)• Black and White (1944)• Farm and City (1944; written with Lucy Sprague Mitchell)• Horses (1944; written as Timothy Hay)• Red Light Green Light (1944; written as Golden MacDonald)• They All Saw It (1944)• Willie's Walk to Grandmama (1944; written with Rockbridge Campbell)• The House of a Hundred Windows (1945)• Little Lost Lamb (1945; written as Golden MacDonald)• Little Fur Family (1946)• The Little Island (1946; written as Golden MacDonald)• The Man in the Manhole and the Fix-it Men (1946; written as Juniper Sage)

Book List• The Bad Little Duckhunter (1947)• The First Story (1947)• The Golden Egg Book (1947)• Goodnight Moon (1947)• The Sleepy Little Lion (1947)• The Winter Noisy Book (1947)• Five Little Firemen (1948; written with Edith Thacher Hurd)• The Golden Sleepy Book (1948)• The Little Farmer (1948)• Wait Till the Moon Is Full (1948)• Wonderful Story Book (1948)• The Color Kittens (1948)• The Important Book (1949)• The Little Cowboy (1949)• My World (1949)• A Pussycat's Christmas (1949)• Two Little Trains (1949)• The Dark Wood of the Golden Birds (1950)• The Dream Book: First Comes the Dream (1950)• The Little Fat Policeman (1950; written with Edith Thacher Hurd)• O, Said the Squirrel (1950)• The Peppermint Family (1950)• The Quiet Noisy Book (1950)• The Wonderful House (1950)

Book List• Fox Eyes (1951)• <The Summer Noisy Book (1951)• The Train to Timbuctoo (1951)• Two Little Gardeners (1951; written with Edith Thacher Hurd)• A Child's Good Morning (1952)• Christmas in the Barn (1952)• Doctor Squash, The Doll Doctor (1952)• Mister Dog: The Dog Who Belonged to Himself (1952)• The Noon Balloon (1952)• Pussy Willow (1952)• Seven Little Postmen (1952; written with Edith Thacher Hurd)• Where Have You Been? (1952)

Morehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SqN-rwzMzM  Margaret Wise Brown Lesson plans and teaching ideas for Goodnight, Moon, The Important Book http://www.webenglishteacher.com/brown.html#sthash.yc2Ir7HO.dpufhttp://www.webenglishteacher.com/brown.html

Resources and ReferencesDavis-Barnes effect | Online references | cyclopaedia.net. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2015, fromhttp://www.cyclopaedia.info/wiki/Davis-Barnes-effectMargaret Wise Brown | biography - American writer. (2015, January 1). Retrieved April 20, 2015, from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/81581/Margaret-Wise-BrownMargaret Wise Brown. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2015, from https://writerofsongsandnonsense.wordpress.comRoiphe, K. (n.d.). The Author of Goodnight Moon Did Not Like Children. Retrieved April 20, 2015, from http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/roiphe/2012/03/the_restless_life_of_margaret_wise_brown_author_of_goodnight_moon_.htmlMargaret Wise Brown (1910 - 1952). (2007, July 31). Retrieved April 20, 2015, from http://www.waterborolibrary.org/MWI_detail.php?authID=367Margaret Wise Brown Lesson plans and teaching ideas for Goodnight, Moon, The Important Book. (2014, November 2). Retrieved April 20, 2015, from http://www.webenglishteacher.com/brown.html#sthash.yc2Ir7HO.dpufhttp://www.webenglishteacher.com/brown.htmlPictures from http://lookingglassreview.com/assets/images/Margaret_Wise_Brown.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/51/Goodnightmoon.jpghttp://www-tc.pbs.org/parents/booklights/booklists.jpghttp://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zHBE0CagxR8/Uuuk5KiWpQI/AAAAAAAACws/igd-CH27hgQ/s1600/Bunny-s-Noisy-Book-9780786804726.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Big_Red_Barn,_illustrated_by_Felicia_Bond,_children's_book_illustrator.jpeg