Margaret Wise Brown was a prolific American children’s author whose works included Goodnight Moon (1947) and The Runaway Bunny (1942).
Brown began writing books for children while working at the Bank Street College of Education, a teacher training college, in New York City. The school promoted a new approach to children's education and literature, emphasizing more current and relevant material that better related to students’ lives in the real world. This philosophy, as well as the poetry of Gertrude Stein, greatly influenced Brown's own work.[1] She went on to pen over 100 children's books.
Brown had a long off-and-on affair with the lawyer and playwright William Gaston, as well as a summer romance with the writer Preston Schoyer.[2] In the summer of 1940, Brown became close with Blanche Oelrichs (who wrote under the name Michael Strange), the poet, playwright, actress, and the former wife of actor John Barrymore. Romance blossomed in the relationship, which was initially a mentorship, and the two moved in together in 1943, remaining a couple until Oelrichs's death in 1950.[3]
In 1952, Brown became engaged to James Stillman "Pebble" Rockefeller Jr. Later that year, while on a book tour in France, she died unexpectedly at age 42 following surgery on her appendix. Generations later, her books are still read by children around the world.