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I was just flipping through a recent back issue of the New Yorker and discovered that one of the highlights of my childhood was based on a lie (a lie, I tell you!):
The mother of all bedtime stories, “Goodnight Moon,” by Margaret Wise Brown, will turn sixty next year. … At the time that it appeared, Brown was thirty-seven and a well-established children’s writer; among her many acclaimed picture books were “The Runaway Bunny” and “Little Fur Family.” Still, she didn’t quite fit, or want to fit, the role of beloved children’s author; her real ambition was to write for grownups. Brown never married—her affairs were conducted with members of both sexes—and had no children. When she wasn’t making up tales about soft little bunnies, she liked to watch them get ripped to pieces; a fan of running to hounds, Brown was a charter member of an exclusive Long Island hunting club known as the Buckram Beagles. Asked about this apparent conflict in an interview with Life, Brown replied, “Well, I don’t especially like children, either. At least not as a group. I won’t let anybody get away with anything just because he is little.”
Is it wrong that I kind of love her for this? 
Comments (15)
Comment
Soon to be revealed:
Dr. Seuss’ fondness for the Hos down in Ho-ville.
posted by Sheldon Siegel on 1-5-2007 at 8:21 am
The wild things were really in Maurice Sendak’s LSD and hallucinogenic ’shroom-induced deliriums :-)
posted by cube on 1-5-2007 at 10:02 am
I like the story even more knowing she like the ladies and not so much the children.
posted by Juli on 1-5-2007 at 1:07 pm
Aren’t all the highlights of your childhood based on lies? Mine are…
posted by Sass on 1-5-2007 at 1:16 pm
Next up:
Joel Chandler Harris wrote the screen adaptation of “The Clansmen.”
posted by Nanookanano on 1-10-2007 at 7:54 am
Perhaps, the lies we learn in childhood prepare us to confront the larger lies that confront us as adults. Lies such as , you can be anything you set your mind to be or you have the smae chance as anyone else. When you are always the last one picked for games in grade school and your teacher tells you that it is just a coincedence. Everytime! In high school when you lkearn that there was a party and you were not invited and you ask your friend why he did not ask you he says, oh, you wouldn’t like the [people that were there, a bunch of jerks.
The gap between the rich and poor is greater now than when the Pilgrims landed. The middle class is being squeezed out and down. This turn is a complete departure from the “american dream.” The notion that your kids would do better than you has vanished.
The lies of our youth prepare us for the lies of our lives.
Perhaps these lies are necessary. Some belive that there is a beautiful place in the sky where you go when you die. This is one time when I hope that the lie is the truth!
posted by bighead scot on 1-10-2007 at 8:00 am
Okay. That’s just an outright lie.
posted by Nanookanano on 1-10-2007 at 8:05 am
an anecdote on liking children: my busdriver asked a woman on the bus “do you like children?” to which she replied, “very much, but I usually can’t eat a whole one.”
posted by Michelle on 1-10-2007 at 8:50 am
I always thought Goodnight Moon referenced the most annoying part of childhood, and that The Runaway Bunny was downright hostile to children. The poor little bunny is trying to get away from Mom and each time, she trumps him, in effect saying, “No matter what you do, I’m the boss, dammit.” I would probably gag on the little fur family, too.
posted by Lynn on 1-10-2007 at 8:55 am
The best part about reading GM is trying to find the mouse on all the colored pages. At least that part’s not a lie - the mice in my house are pretty bold, too.
posted by Sarah on 1-10-2007 at 9:22 am
Ridiculous!
Are you having a slow news day or what?
Margaret Wise Brown is a great children’s book author. What she did with the rest of her time was her business. Once we start looking into the lives of authors we may become disillusioned.
That is NOT the point about literature.
Surely you kind find something more pertinent to put in your Mental Floss column?
Get a grip, boys!
posted by Olivia on 1-10-2007 at 9:26 am
I never liked those books much anyway - there are far better books out there.
posted by Susan on 1-10-2007 at 9:57 am
to olivia- lighten up!
I think it’s kind of funny that Margaret Wise Brown didn’t particularly like children. As revealed in Mental_floss a few months back, Shel Silverstein didn’t either. He started out writing for Playboy! Makes me like them that much more. It shows they were human. Aren’t we all?
posted by Sarah on 1-10-2007 at 4:12 pm
I agree with Olivia. I feel the same way about anyone in the public eye. Actors, writers, politicians, etc; couldn’t care less about their private lives; and spare me the details please!
posted by feste on 1-10-2007 at 8:06 pm
Am preschool teacher. Tried to print article on Margaret Wise Brown. Only printed orange border. Any idea why your “print page” is not working?
posted by Cheryl Piasta on 1-11-2007 at 6:21 am