Writer of Songs and Nonsense

February 1, 2022 7:28 AM

The Radical Woman Behind “Goodnight Moon” [The New Yorker; Archive]

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posted by chavenet (9 comments total)

Well, I am on Team Runaway Bunny for life. I love that book. So, thank you so much, chavenet, for bringing Margaret Wise Brown back to mind.

But reading my particular Previously is bittersweet. I miss iconomy so much and have yet to find out where she has gone. She was a delight.

And I miss rodii, too -- he was a corner column holding up the entablature and roof of Temple MetaFilter back in its Doric period. So well read and well spoken. I wish he was still here, too.
posted by y2karl at 8:10 AM on February 1, 2022 [4 favorites]

Two radical women, actually: Margaret Wise Brown's literary agent was Frances Goldin.
posted by praemunire at 8:22 AM on February 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

I'm always a bit disappointed that so much ink is spilled over upper-crust Wise while the (imo) far more interesting Esphyr Slobodkina, who illustrated several of her books and wrote many more of her own, remains neglected.
posted by phooky at 9:04 AM on February 1, 2022 [6 favorites]

Make an FPP! I'd love to read it.
posted by praemunire at 9:33 AM on February 1, 2022 [8 favorites]

A friend of mine has a kid and somewhere between the age of one and two his pediatrician gave him a copy of Goodnight Moon. At roughly the same time I saw something here on the blue that said the book was influenced by Gertrude Stein (!). As I read it to him, I could begin to hear it in the text. It’s a very subtle and magical text, best read out loud even when you’re alone. Now thanks to this posting I need to track down some more of her books. As a grown-up, I hate the word “adult,” I really enjoy children’s literature. There can be a lot of depth, sometimes of a different kind, in these books. And you don’t necessarily need a kid around to enjoy them.
posted by njohnson23 at 11:06 AM on February 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

Wasn't Ursula Nordstrom her editor? She was responsible for a whole bunch of radical/interesting/queer children's book writers, like Maurice Sendak. Ah, yes, I see she's mentioned in the article.

I have never liked The Runaway Bunny, which seems kind of stalker-y in a creepy way. But I've read her other books to my children many, many times.

I love the description of her efforts to teach. "Seems to be in a daydream much of the time."

Esphyr Slobodkina was also a favorite. We had several of her books, but one of my kids was really into Caps for Sale when she was little, and I often was asked to act it out with her.
posted by Well I never at 12:17 PM on February 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

She gave my great aunt in law Dahlov Ipcar her first book illustration commission, The Little Fisherman, which launched Dahlov's career as a children's book writer and illustrator. Thanks, Margaret!

Also, Brown's book The Little Island is straight-up avant garde poetry. It's amazing.
posted by goatdog at 2:54 PM on February 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

That book came up in my Audible recommendations. Because I read "Sons of Cain". Clearly there's something wrong here.
posted by kathrynm at 5:22 PM on February 1, 2022

I have a Little Golden Book copy of Two Little Gardeners illustrated by Edith Thacher Hurd and it is a most delightful exploration of growing food and weeds and harvests apart from the bit where the two little gardeners make a "funny fierce-footed 'raba-mole' to frighten away certain rabbits and groundhogs..." and it is quite an intimidating creature that lurks in the garden under the moon.

The final page is sheet music for Full As A Fiddle, a short song with lyrics by MWB.
posted by pipstar at 11:10 PM on February 1, 2022