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Margaret Wise Brown

American writer of children's books (1910–1952)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 26, 2026
Entity authorityQ5970117
Source-derived summary

Margaret Wise Brown (May 23, 1910 – November 13, 1952) was an American writer of children's books, including Goodnight Moon (1947) and The Runaway Bunny (1942), both illustrated by Clement Hurd. She has been called "the laureate of the nursery" for her achievements. Besides her real name, she also used the noms-de-plume Golden MacDonald for Doubleday and Company, Timothy Hay for Harper & Brothers and Juniper Sage (her collaboration with Edith Thacher Hurd) for William R. Scott, Inc.

Life and career

Brown was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, the middle child of three children of Maude Margaret (Johnson) and Robert Bruce Brown. She was the granddaughter of politician Benjamin Gratz Brown. Her parents had an unhappy marriage. She was initially raised in Brooklyn's Greenpoint neighborhood, and later attended Chateau Brilliantmont boarding school in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1923.

In 1925, Brown attended The Kew-Forest School. She began attending Dana Hall School in Wellesley, Massachusetts, in 1926, where she did well in athletics. After graduation in 1928, Brown went on to Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia.

Editorial summary

“Margaret Wise Brown” enters the record as american writer of children's books (1910–1952). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Margaret, Wise and Brown can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1910, 1952, 1947, 1942—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1910-05-23. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Margaret, Wise and Brown.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Margaret Wise Brown” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Margaret, Wise and Brown provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5970117. VIAF identifies the subject as 39374476. The Library of Congress control number is n79108848. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1910, 1952, 1947 and 1942.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Margaret Wise Brown”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Margaret Wise Brown primary sources, Margaret Wise Brown archive and Margaret research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Margaret Wise Brown”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Margaret Wise Brown” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.