In her own life, Brown didn't follow a conventional path for a woman. But the important thing about a spoon is that you eat with it.' (The Important Book, 1949) It's like a little shovel, You hold it in your hand, You can put it in your mouth, It isn't flat, It's hollow, And it spoons things up. 'The important thing about a spoon is that you eat with it. From the 'puff, puff, puff and chug, chug, chug' of a train and a mother's 'hush' to wishing objects goodnight and noting what is 'important' about things, she blazed a trail for a new type of writing for children.

Instead of fables and fairy tales, Brown focused on the familiar, everyday sights and sounds in a child's life. Goodnight Moon may now seem like such a simple book, but it was once considered unconventional, as was Brown's entire philosophy of writing for children (along with others at the Writers Lab). When we went in, we found fires burning in both fireplaces, vases of fresh flowers in every room, fur rugs on the floor, lots of fur pillows, and a general sense of warm coziness reminiscent of the house in which the little fur family lived in Margaret's book illustrated by Garth Williams.We basked in the spiritual warmth of it all for a couple of weeks and then moved to the country when we suspected that Brownie might want her house back.' I will never forget that first view as we stepped out into the courtyard and saw the little house with its welcoming lights shining softly from every window onto a dusting of new snow. The passage was cobbled, and at the end of it there was an old two-story clapboard house. 'To get to the backyard, we had to go through a passageway in the building on the street. Clement described their arrival in a 1983 remembrance in Horn Book Magazine. It was also depicted by illustrator Garth Williams in her book Mister Dog. Facing demolition, in 1967 the house was moved to 121 Charles Street in the West Village where it remains today.įriends and frequent collaborators Clement and Edith Hurd were guests at Cobble Court in 1945. Tucked away from the street and only accessible through a passageway, the house was the inspiration for The Hidden House. In fact, it is likely that she wrote Goodnight Moon there. For parts of the late 1940s and early 50s she rented an 1800s farmhouse, dubbed Cobble Court, at 71st Street and York Avenue where she would escape away to work. Place was extremely important to Margaret Wise Brown.

Clement hurd