Guide to the Margaret Wise Brown papers , 1929-1952

Westerly Public Library
Local History and Special Collections
44 Broad Street
Westerly, RI 02891
Tel: 401-596-2877
E-mail: nwright@westerlylibrary.org

Published in 2009

Collection Overview

Title:	Margaret Wise Brown papers
Date range:	1929-1952
Creator:	Brown, Margaret Wise, 1910-1952
Extent:	24 box(es)
Abstract:	The Margaret Wise Brown papers contains correspondence, photographs, manuscripts, poems, songs, stories and essays, books, and many ideas for records, television and radio programs.
Language of materials:	English
Repository:	Westerly Public Library
Collection number:	MWB01

Scope & content

The published works portion of the collection contains many of Margaret Wise Brown's handwritten or typed stories and ideas, which ultimately evolved into published books. There are often several different versions of a story, with ideas or changes scribbled in the margins. There are also book dummies with her notes for revisions. The collection includes two first editions of The Little Fur Family, covered in actual rabbit fur, and two records for children. The published works component of the collection is by far the largest, consisting of 12 boxes, most containing 10-30 folders. Series 2, the unpublished works part of the collection, contains several hundred poems or songs, stories and essays, both for children and adults, and many ideas for records, television and radio programs, and books.

In addition to her writings, the collection includes correspondence between Margaret Wise Brown and friends or collaborators, papers she wrote while in college for creative writing classes, articles and book reviews about her work, black and white photographs of Margaret Wise Brown and illustrations for some of her books. The illustrations were done by Clement Hurd (for The Little Brass Band) and Barbara Cooney (for The Little Fir Tree), and include complete storyboards for these two books. Lastly, the collection contains articles and theses written about Margaret Wise Brown.

Access Points

Subject Topics

• Language and Literature

Arrangement

The Margaret Wise Brown Collection consists of seven series: published works, unpublished works, correspondence, miscellaneous papers, illustrations, materials about Margaret Wise Brown, and photographs.

• Series 1. Published Works contains published stories, poems, and songs, both handwritten and typed, often with Margaret Wise Brown's notes. The collection also has book dummies for some of her works. These items are arranged alphabetically by title and housed in Boxes 1-12.
• Series 2. Unpublished Works contains poems and songs, essays and stories, ideas for records, plays, radio and television programs, musical scores with words by Margaret Wise Brown, music by Elizabeth Randolph or Dorothy Cadzow, and composition books with ideas for stories, notes, and thoughts in them. These items are grouped by format, and arranged alphabetically within format. They are housed in boxes 13-18.
• Series 3. Correspondence contains letters to and from Margaret Wise Brown, separated into two files. Correspondence is in box 19.
• Series 4. Miscellaneous Papers contains Margaret Wise Brown’s college papers and creative stories, her notes from writing workshops she participated in, including notes about how children reacted to her stories, and book reviews and articles on her work that she clipped from newspapers. Series IV is in box 20.
• Series 5. Illustrations contains illustrations, generally in storyboard form, for a few of Margaret Wise Brown’s published books. One box holds the complete storyboard for the story The Little Brass Band. The second box has assorted illustrations from several of Margaret Wise Brown’s books including The Little Fir Tree. The collection contains work by Barbara Cooney and Clement Hurd and is housed in boxes 21 and 22.
• Series 6. Materials about Margaret Wise Brown contains articles, theses, and manuscripts about her, grouped by format. It is contained in box 23.
• Series 7. Photographs contains black and white photographs of Margaret Wise Brown, from her childhood until shortly before her death. Also included are photographs of her homes in Maine and New York City. Photographs are in box 24.

Biographical note

Margaret Wise Brown was born May 23, 1910 in Brooklyn, New York, and raised with an older brother and younger sister on Long Island. Her father, Robert Brown, worked for the American Manufacturing Company and her mother, Maude Johnson Brown, was a homemaker. She described her childhood as difficult and lonely. Her parents' marriage was not happy, and she spent a lot of time alone, exploring the beaches and woods of Long Island, and caring for her numerous pets.

Margaret left home at age 13 to attend boarding school in Switzerland, returning two years later to complete her high school education at Dana Hall in Massachusetts. In 1932 she received her B.A. from Hollins College in Virginia, her mother's alma mater. She then moved to New York City to intern at the Bank Street School, an experimental school for child-development study and teacher training, with intentions of becoming a teacher. While Margaret decided not to pursue a teaching career, the Writers Laboratory at the school inspired her. Margaret became a children's book editor at the William R. Scott publishing company, while also working at Bank Street and freelance writing. The books she wrote and edited were approved or revised based on responses to the story by groups of children enrolled at Bank Street. She published her first children's book, When the Wind Blows, in 1937. Over the next 14 years she published over 100 books for children, including the well known classics, Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny.

Margaret Wise Brown entertained friends at her two homes, Manhattan's Cobble Court and The Only House on Vinalhaven Island in Maine. Animals were always a big part of her life. At one point she shared her small Manhattan home with a cat, a dog, a flying squirrel, and a goat. She had a long and difficult relationship with Blanche Oelrichs, a poet who wrote under the pen name "Michael Strange". Oelrichs had also been married to John Barrymore, the actor. Margaret eventually became engaged to a younger man, James Stillman ("Pebbles") Rockefeller, Jr. She was on a pre-honeymoon trip to Europe when she fell ill. She died in France of an embolism on November 13, 1952, two days after appendectomy surgery.

Access & Use

Access to the collection:	There are no restrictions on access, except that the collection can only be seen by prior appointment. Some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested.
Use of the materials:	Researchers are advised that express written permission to reproduce, quote, or otherwise publish any portion or extract from this collection must be obtained from the Westerly Public Library. Although Westerly Public Library has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. It is up to the researcher to determine the owners of the literary rights and to obtain any necessary permissions from them.
Preferred citation:	Margaret Wise Brown papers, MWB 01, Westerly Public Library.
Contact information:	Westerly Public Library Local History and Special Collections 44 Broad Street Westerly, RI 02891 Tel: 401-596-2877 E-mail: nwright@westerlylibrary.org

Administrative Information

ABOUT THE COLLECTION
Acquisition:	The Margaret Wise Brown Collection was donated to the Westerly Public Library by Jessica Gamble Dunham. Mrs. Dunham was the personnel director at the Bank Street School and a close friend of Ms. Brown. In 1946, Jessica and Gilbert Dunham moved to Stonington, Connecticut on the border of Westerly, Rhode Island. Margaret Wise Brown visited her friends in Stonington often and had great affection for the area.
ABOUT THE FINDING AID
Author:	Finding aid prepared by Westerly Public Library staff.
Encoding:	Finding aid encoded by Daniel Mejia 2009 September 03
Descriptive rules:	Finding aid based on Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Additional Information

Inventory

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