The Great Brain
American series of children's books
The Great Brain is a series of children's books by American author John Dennis Fitzgerald (1906–1988). Set in the small town of Adenville, Utah, between 1896 and 1898, the stories are loosely based on Fitzgerald's childhood experiences. Chronicled by the first-person voice of John Dennis Fitzgerald, the stories mainly center on the escapades of John's mischievous older brother, Tom Dennis Fitzgerald, a.k.a. "The Great Brain". The Great Brain was made into a movie released in 1978, with the main character played by Jimmy Osmond.
Mercer Mayer originally illustrated the books, except for 1995's The Great Brain Is Back (which was illustrated by Diane deGroat). Mayer did the original cover illustrations for the first seven books as well, but Carl Cassler re-did the cover illustrations for some of the reprints of the first seven books.
Background
Although John D. Fitzgerald was born in Price, Utah, several references in the stories suggest Adenville is located in Utah's "Dixie" in the southwestern corner of the state. A small village called Adenville briefly existed near Cedar City, about which little is known.
The publisher's note in The Great Brain Is Back, published after the death of the author, recounts the story of the series' origin.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Great Brain” 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.