Existing comment:
Margaret Wise Brown
1910–1952
Born Brooklyn, New York
Margaret Wise Brown once mused, "The first great wonder at the world is big in me. That is why I write." Brown's work at the Bureau of Educational Experiments (now Bank Street College of Education) in New York City, an experimental academy dedicated to early childhood development, inspired her to write children's books. Between 1937 and her death in 1952, she authored more than one hundred books, including such classics as The Runaway Bunny (1942), The Little Island (1946), and Goodnight Moon (1947). In her writings, which often use repetition of language, Brown evokes the poetry of Gertrude Stein, whom she greatly admired.
Philippe Halsman photographed Brown one year before Goodnight Moon was released and a few years after she began living with her life partner (playwright and actress Blanche Oelrichs). This portrait reveals Brown's preference for handwriting her manuscripts using a quill pen.
Philippe Halsman (1906–1979)
Gelatin silver print, 1946
Gift of Steve Bello, in memory of Jane Halsman Bello |