November 13, 2008
Margaret Wise Brown Kicks Off (1952)
Today, children's book author Margaret Wise Brown unwittingly launched herself into eternity through a high kick.
She had been recuperating from an operation to remove an ovarian cyst in a hospital in Nice, France. The operation was a success, but when demonstrating to her doctor the extent of her recovery, she had loosened a blood clot which caused an embolism in her heart, killing her within moments. She was 42.Brown didn't fit the stereotype of a writer of children's books. She was tall and blond, with green eyes, and something of a bohemian. The onetime teacher and book editor, when not writing, moved easily into relationships with men and women. Among her conquests were the future king of Spain, Juan Carlos, and the ex-wife of John Barrymore, whom she lived with for a decade.
Brown's unconventional attitude extended to her friends. When one of them, Joan MacCormick, married Albert Clarke Jr. and bore three sons, she became a foster aunt to them and their cousins. She gave them a stuffed lion's head, took them along on a fox hunt, and encouraged their artistic ambitions.
But of the children, Brown's favorite was the middle boy, Albert Clarke III, who was energetic and mischievous, a Dennis the Menace who frequently got into trouble, particularly with fights. Perhaps, Brown saw him as a kindred spirit, the type of son she would have wanted. Whatever the reason, she decided to will the nine-year-old the rights and royalties to most of her works, 79 of them in all.
One of those books was "Goodnight Moon," a short, repetitive poem that Brown wrote in a morning, about a child saying good night to the objects in her bedroom — the red balloon, the telephone, and the moon shining through the window. "Goodnight Moon" was published in 1947, after the publisher "edited" a picture on the wall of the cow jumping over the moon, to blur the udder. (In 2005, to keep the little'uns from taking up smoking, HarperCollins digitally removed a cigarette from the hand of illustrator Clement Hurd on the back of the book.) After selling 6,000 copies the first year sales had dropped sharply and the book probably would go out of print. Perhaps, she thought, her legacy would be a nice little gift when the boy grew up.
Six months later, Brown was dead, and like a fairy godmother, she had given Albert a gift that would change his life forever.
Because "Goodnight Moon" did not sink from the sky. The next year, a syndicated newspaper column praised the book as the perfect book for a child, a "small classic." Sales picked up, then grew. When Albert turned 21, he received a check for $75,000, the beginning of a flow of money that would total nearly $5 million, most of which was thrown away in a life that included multiple arrests for a host of minor crimes (including assault, burglary, drug possession and disorderly conduct) and bad real estate deals.
Today, after several decades of sometimes riotuous living, Albert seems to have settled, spending his days reading, wandering, exercising and raising his two children from a failed relationship. Because of the extension granted to copyrights, "Goodnight Moon" will generate royalties until 2043, and Brown's gift will continue to shine — for better and for worse — on the Clarke family.
Born: Augustine, bishop of Hippo, memoirist, theologian, saint, Tagaste, Numidia, 354; Robert Louis Stevenson, essayist, poet, novelist, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1850; George V. Higgins, mystery novelist, short-story writer, Brocton, Mass., 1939.
Died: Arthur Clough, poet, Florence, Italy, 1861; Margaret Wise Brown, children's book author, Nice, France, 1952; Bernard De Voto, novelist, journalist, historian, critic, New York City, 1955.
Quote for the Day: "A thing is not necessarily true because badly uttered, nor false because spoken magnificently." — St. Augustine, who was born today in 354
Also from the "Writers 365" project:
- Dave Barry did not make this up (1947)
- Red scare squashes Sam Spade's creator (1951)
- Carson McCullers visits the Sad Cafe (1951)
- Raymond Chandler and The Rise of the Zombie Novels (1958)
- Howl's Moving Telegram (1955)
Enjoy this post? Share it with others.
