Heartbroken and recovering from a surgery, Brown took to her house in Maine and wrote a poem about a girl who finds comfort in her thoughts of her childhood room. 'I won't let anybody get away with anything just because he's little.'Īnother surprising tidbit about Goodnight Moon involves its inspiration, which came after the breakup of a lesbian affair Brown was having with a married woman, Blanche Oelrichs, also known by the name Michael Strange. 'I hope to write something serious one day as soon as I have something to say,' she said, 'But I am stuck in my childhood, and that raises the devil when one wants to move on.'Īlthough the ideas for her classic books came easily to her - The Runaway Bunny popped into her head while she was skiing - and were beloved by children, she herself wasn't especially taken with her demographic. She aspired to be 'America's next great novelist,' but discovered while working at a school that her stories engaged and resonated with young children.Īfter she sold one of her stories to a major publishing company and became a success, she claimed that she 'harbored a deep insecurity about her career' and eventually wanted to move on to write 'real' literature, but felt held back by her childhood. Revealed in Amy Gary's biography of Brown, In the Great Green Room, and reported on by the NY Post, Brown felt ignored as a child by her wealthy, distracted parents, which went on to affect her career. ') and adorable illustrations, but as it turns out, Margaret Wise Brown didn't always want to be a children's book writer. The classic book is a total staple on kiddo bookshelves all over the world with it's famous opening line ('In the great green room. Goodnight Moon was my favorite book as a child, and in a hilarious turn of events, I just found out that the author actually hated kids.

Goodnight moon author