Margaret Wise Brown

Margaret Wise Brown was born on May 23rd, 1910 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. She attended boarding school in 1923 in Switzerland while her parents were in India. She later attended Dana Hall in 1926, where she did well in athletics. After graduation at Dana Hall in 1928, Brown went onto Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia.

Following graduation at Hollins College in 1932, Brown worked in teaching, and also studied art. It was while working at the Bank Street Experimental School in New York City that she started writing books for children, the first of which was When the Wind Blew. In all her books 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. Brown went on to develop her Here and Now stories, and later the Noisy Book series while employed as editor at William R. Scott Publishing Company. In the early 1950s, she wrote several books for the Little Golden Books series including Mister Dog and Sailor Dog.

In 1952, Margaret met James Stillman Rockefeller Jr. at a party, and he later proposed to her. But on November 13th of that year while on a book tour in France, she contracted appendicitis and was taken to a hospital where she died of complications. She was 42 years old at the time of her death.

Margaret's books include Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny, both illustrated by Clement Hurd. Even though she died over 50 years ago, these continue to sell very well.