Product Description

Margaret Wise Brown, the author of Goodnight Moon and dozens of other children's classics, all but invented the picture book as we know it today. Combining poetic instinct with a profound empathy for small children, she knew of a child's need for security, love, and a sense of being at home in the world and she brought that unique tenderness to the page.

Yet these were comforts that eluded her. Brown's youthful presence and professional success as an editor, bestselling author, and self-styled impresario masked an insecurity that left her restless and vulnerable. In this moving biography, Marcus portrays Brown's complex character and her tragic, seesaw life. Her literary achievement and groundbreaking discoveries about small children's emotional needs were offset by tormented romances including a passionate relationship with Michael Strange, the celebrity socialite once married to John Barrymore.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #376847 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10-06
• Released on: 1999-09-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Brown (1910-1952) wrote some 100 children's books informed by her acute insights into their world. Among her classics, Goodnight Moon excited deep curiosity in Marcus, children's book reviewer for Parenting magazine, when he first read the "concrete yet mystifying" book. Thus motivated, he spent nearly 10 years researching Brown's life to produce this not altogether satisfying biography of an author who helped raise children's book writing to an art form. But those in the field will be interested, nevertheless, for a host of major figures are met here, including children's book editors Ursula Nordstrom and Charlotte Zolotow, illustrators Clement Hurd, Garth Williams and H. A. Rey. And there's much valuable background material on those who influenced Brown's writing, including Lucy Sprague Mitchell of Manhattan's Bank Street School and Anne Carroll Moore of the New York Public Library. Brown, however, remains in essence unknown: Why, for example, did she allow herself to be demeaned in a long relationship--a lesbian affair?--with self-promoting, overbearing socialite Michael Strange, former wife of actor John Barrymore? After that relationship ended, Brown fell happily in love with and became engaged to James Rockefeller, but she died of an embolism before they wed. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
She was, in the words of former Kirkus editor Barbara Bader- -whose American Picturebooks Marcus quotes--''the first to make the writing of picturebooks an art.'' As founding editor of the innovative William R. Scott children's book line, as well as the author of about 100 picture books during her 15-year career, Brown (1910-52) was also, as Marcus (who reviews children's books for Parenting Magazine) sums up, as responsible as anyone for making the field of children's picture books ``a vital creative enterprise in her time.'' Brown's two enduring classics, The Runaway Bunny (inspired by a medieval Proven‡al love ballad) and the ``hypnotic'' Goodnight Moon (still going strong after 45 years and four million copies), were ignored by The Horn Book and the New York Public Library but helped win her a 1947 celebrity profile in Life. Marcus recounts how Brown found her calling while an intern at the experimental Bank Street School for child-development study and teacher training--and how, by Bank Street policy, the books she wrote and edited were approved or revised according to the responses of ``the threes'' or ``the fives'' (or other appropriate age groups) enrolled at the school. From published reports, Brown's considerable correspondence, and interviews with those who knew her, Marcus pieces together a picture of his subject's doubts and achievements and ambition to write for grown-ups; her offbeat homes and quirky persona; and her friend-filled but lonely life punctuated by a few short affairs and engagements, then an unhappy relationship with a difficult woman who called herself Michael Strange, and, finally, love and imminent marriage to a younger man, Pebbles Rockefeller--only to die after surgery at age 42. If Marcus doesn't bring Brown to scintillating life, he does give an honest and informative account, including intriguing sketches of Bank Street and of developments and personages in the children's book world of the time. And he does it without the sanctimonious reverence so endemic in his field. (Sixteen b&w photographs.) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review
"An absorbing biography." -- The New York Times Book Review

"More than a finely etched, honest portrait of an artist, Margaret Wise Brown is an exciting, fast-paced glimpse into the very beginnings of the golden age of children's book publishing in America. Leonard Marcus has restored Brown to her rightful place as both pioneer and poet." -- Maurice Sendak

Customer Reviews

An excellent read:
An absorbing book that provides a fascinating, respectful biography of Brown, as well as an intriguing history of the Golden Age of children's publishing. Finely written and well documented.

Awakened by the Moon
A fascinating account of a pioneer of children's literature. This book provides a great deal of insight into the personal and professional dealings of children's book publishing in the earliest days. Margaret seems to have been a woman ahead of her time in many ways and quite a character herself. A very entertaining and well researched book.

Worthy Subject, Forgettable Biography
It's no small task to create an enchanting picture of an adored figure in children's literature. Unfortunately, Leonard Marcus was not up to the challenge. The biography is too linear, too literal, and written too much like a graduate school study. Still, the segment about her studies at Bank Street College of Education (I'm a grad) was interesting, as was the description of her evolving sense of child development as it affected her story crafting.