The Lit Pimp
Chris Robinson
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"The first Golden Book, Poky Little Puppy, from 1942
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The Wonder of Margaret Wise Brown and Little Golden Books
My second phase with kids' lit started about eight years ago. I read my son all sorts of stuff. One book in particular stood out. In Goodnight Moon, a little rabbit is settled into bed, and before dozing off, he wishes everything in his room a good night. One line in particular caught my eye: "Goodnight nobody." What a strange and rather haunting line for a kids' book. I devoured more of Margaret Wise Brown's books, including Big Red Barn, The Runaway Bunny, the strange Mister Dog (about a dog who owns himself), and, again, there were these strange, almost existential moments.
Brown creates a world that is safe and cozy, but there's a fragile, almost desperate aura around it, as though this solitude could be taken from you at any moment. I've no idea if children pick up on this existential stuff, but I sure as hell did.
These were the first kids' books that really made me wonder about the author. What kind of life had inspired such beautiful and strange stories?
In his 1992 biography of Brown (Awakened by the Moon), Leonard Marcus depicts a stubborn, independent and insecure woman who definitely danced to her own beat. After years of struggling to find her purpose, she found almost instant success as a writer of children's books in the late 1930s. Once she started writing, she couldn't seem to stop. The ideas didn't just flow from Brown's mind, they flooded it. Between 1939 and 1952 she wrote over 100 books, many of them classics.
The key to Brown's
success was that she wrote from the perspective of a child. She also told stories that followed the philosophy of her mentor, Lucy Sprague Mitchell, an educational reformer who believed that kids would be better served by reading "here and now" books rather than fairy tales. Another great kids' book revelation that I stumbled onto, thanks to Brown, were the Little Golden Books. In her Golden books, Seven Little Postmen, The Color Kittens and Mister Dog, I wasn't just struck by Brown's quirky stories, but also by the beautiful artwork that accompanied them.
Late last year, to commemorate their 65th anniversary, Golden Legacy, a biography of Little Golden Books, was released. It's a fascinating story of the rise of a small printing company (Western) that grows into a multi-million-dollar corporation. The story behind the Little Golden Books was that they wanted to provide children and their parents with affordable books (the initial books cost 25 cents when the average kids' book was going for at least $1). The Golden Books were intended to be cheap without being cheap.
The first Golden Book, The Poky Little Puppy, debuted in 1942. The book and series, despite criticism from the petulant folks at the then-influential New York Public Library, were a massive success with parents and children.
Affordability was only part of the reason for Golden's success. The books succeeded because they told good stories (thanks to authors like Brown) and featured fantastic, often lyrical and decorative art. The illustrators ranged from European émigrés like Feodor Rojankovsky and Tibor Gergely to Disney artists like J.P. Miller (Pinocchio, Bambi, Dumbo) and Mary Blair (Sleeping Beauty) and upcoming artists like Richard Scarry.
Sadly, the Brown and Golden Book relationship was relatively short-lived. Brown died of an embolism in 1952 following surgery to remove a cyst. She was only 42 years old.
As tragic as Brown's death was, it seems fitting in the context of her work. She reminds us that as beautiful, surprising and mysterious as this world is, it's not going to be there forever. We should breathe it all in before it's time to say "Goodnight air, goodnight noises everywhere."
