Boston's Book Nook Blog~ The "Goodnight" Blessings of Margaret Wise Brown

"Goodnight room, goodnight moon, goodnight cow jumping over the moon..."  These are the familiar words that millions have been cooed by with while drifting off to sleep. 

Written by the infamous, Margaret Wise Brown, the poetically, texted classic, "Goodnight Moon", has blessed bookshelves for decades.  Although many believe that the story was written with basic literary technique of simplistic intentions, it has been proven that the author's motivations behind creating this epic tale were far more colossal in purpose.  As we peer into the works of Ms. Brown, there is no denying her brilliance that she confessed resulted from the ability to "reach down into the soul of a child that still lived within her and bring it to life."

Margaret was born on May 23, 1910 in Brooklyn, NY where she was said to have an instinctual adoration for animals, specifically poodles and Kerry Blue terriers.  She attended The Dana Hall Academy in Wellesley, Mass., as a student who excelled in athletics, afterwards graduating to continue study at Hollins College of Roanoke, VA. 

Nicknamed "Brownie", she soon continued on her literary career writing stories she had experienced while dreaming.  The writer's style was unique from the start, penning books as a child would prefer to read instead of the traditional formula of catering to a parent's preferences.  Becoming known as the "here and now" approach, this eventually gave way to children's writing workshops where her students wrote their own stories based on personal conflicts and attributions.  Margaret Brown was free spirited in personality and was known to possess the "live for the day" mentality, spending her first royalty check on an entire cart of flowers sold in the middle of Times Square.   

After writing several manuscripts, the blond haired, green eyed beauty released "Goodnight Moon" in 1947 under the publication of Harper Collins.  Revealing pages of descriptive details of a conventional child's bedroom, the book was originally designed to guide families through proper nighttime rituals.  Aspects such as the clock on the wall changing time from 7 p.m. to 8:10 p.m., lighting increasingly darkening and a pendulum swinging until the final page all aid in indicating to the reader that eyes should be closed by the end of the story.  The author also included elements such as a copy of her previous book, "The Runaway Bunny" opened on the bookshelf.  Selling only 1500 copies in 1953 to an exponential explosion in sales of 4 million by the year of 1990, the illustrator of "Goodnight Moon," Clement Hurd,  became legendary when his picture was threatened to be altered by the publisher for holding a cigarette in his hand.  Claiming that this sent an unhealthy message to children, Hurd's family still holds protest by stating that his hands were the means to his genius.

Ms Brown enjoyed an exciting adventure as a children's book author participating in both the writing, reading and teaching of children's literature.   She released hundreds of storybooks throughout the years, at one point having six different publishers and pen names in order to evade flooding the market with "Brown Books."  

Never holding cozy relationships with her publishers, she was on the other hand an avid advocate for illustrators often fighting for royalty rights instead of one time payments.  At the age of only 44, the author passed away after complications received from a blood clot.  Along with many others, she left partial rights of "Goodnight Moon" to the 9-year-old son of a neighbor named Albert Clarke who tragically squandered millions of his inheritance.  Today, over 70 manuscripts have been discovered in the possession of her sister who is partnering with Watermark Inc. to see that some or all of Brown's books find their way back onto the shelves for children to enjoy for decades to come.