Margaret Wise Brown, awakened by the moon by Leonard S. Marcus
Story about Margaret, her life, her relatives and what interests they had while she grew up.
Different places she visited and lived and books they read and games they played.
Moves onto her adult life also and her book writing. Like stories she's written and the way she uses furry animals.
Loved hearing of her island house and all the struggles with her books, makes you appreciate them a lot more. ( )

I'm not a big biography reader, but I am a big children's book reader and Margaret Wise Brown is an important author in this field. Based on this book, her work shows a serenity and sureness that she lacked in her own life. The book is filled with famous illustrators, authors, and editors.

After graduating from Hollins College, she became involved with the Bank Street School in New York City and the philosophy of its founder, Lucy Sprague Mitchell. Mitchell disapproved of fairy tales and thought children's books should be about their own lives.
On a personal level, Ms. Brown was involved with Michael Strange, an ex-wife of John Barrymore, who explained that she, Strange, wrote "big" books for grownups, while Brown wrote "little" books for children---like Brown's book, The Little Fireman. I was left with the feeling that Strange had delusions of grandeur and Brown, lacking self confidence, was convinced of her inferior status by Strange.
After Strange's death, Brown met a younger man, James Rockefeller; they were going to marry when he returned from an around-the-world sailing trip. Alas, she died in a bizarre accident at the age of 42: after about two weeks of bed rest following an operation in a hospital in Europe she kicked up her leg while still lying down, causing an embolism to travel through her system and died almost immediately.

Like many of her social class at that time, Brown was anti-semitic without giving it much thought. She was shocked to discover that her friend and illustrator, Esphyr Slobodkina, was Jewish. I, on the other hand, was delighted to learn this because I had always thought that Caps for Sale felt very Jewish and I hadn't been able to find any information about her religion. ( )

Margaret Wise Brown, b. 1910. Who hasn't read one of Margaret Wise Brown's books to their children? My son's copy of Goodnight Moon had spots where the pages were literally rubbed through from him pointing out the details of the pictures. Yet we learn in this biog that MWB didn't think much of herself for writing children's books. She was also conflicted about single vs. marriage: (1933) "her calendar was perforated with the weddings of classmates". Margaret grew up in New York and lived in Greenwich Village when she was a young woman. She died in her early 40s in a way that was just hopelessly dumb. If the area and the time is of interest to you, you'll probably enjoy this book. ( )

My goodness, what a lovely woman she was- and it showed in her books. ( )