Run by the educational scholar Lucy Sprague Mitchell, the school worked to apply principles of scientific thought and inquiry in determining best educational practices. Bank, which was then based in Greenwich Village, was a hotbed of new ideas about the education of young children. When Brown’s literary career failed to take off, she accepted a position at the Bank Street School as part of their teacher training program. However, her entries into the world of adult literature were largely unsuccessful and included a collection of short stories that failed to garner interest from publishers. When Brown moved to New York City after college, it was with vague ambitions that the frenetic pace of city life would guide her toward being a great novelist, or at least one that made an impact on the city’s literary scene. Read on for more interesting facts from her life. While much has been written about the woman behind Goodnight Moon, there are still parts of Brown’s story that are not as well known. After her death, many more of Brown’s works were posthumously published.

Brown would eventually leave the school and would go on to publish dozens more children’s books, before suddenly dying of an embolism in while on a book tour in France in 1952. While at Bank, Brown began writing for children, and her first children’s book, When the Wind Blew, was published by Harper & Brothers in 1937. Emphasizing the “here and now” of childhood learning, the school focused on realism in children’s literature and this, in turn, influenced Brown’s writing and the topics of her books. Brown then became an educator at Bank Street Experimental School, which was known for its unique approach to childhood literacy.

in English from Hollins College in Virginia. While Brown’s legacy of “the quiet old lady whispering ‘hush’” might have created a public image of her as docile and domestic, her life was anything but predictable.īorn in 1910 in Brooklyn, New York, Brown was the middle of three children and attended several schools as a child before getting her B.A.

But beyond her books, she was also an international traveler and volatile romantic who wrote for children in a way that was revolutionary for her time. Margaret Wise Brown, noted children’s book author and educator, is best known for writing the nursery classic Goodnight Moon, as well as a host of other children’s books that pair Brown’s gentle text with soothing illustrations.

Margaret wise