It is the rare youngster who didn’t have “Goodnight, Moon” read to them as a young child.

The book’s repetitive language may get tedious for the reader, but the slow, peaceful pace and saying goodnight to seemingly everything on the planet is soothing to children.  The book has become a bedtime ritual for generations of children who find comfort in the nightly routine. Indeed, “Goodnight Moon” has been so successful that it has never been out of print since its publication in 1947. Some 800,000 copies are sold annually,  and in 2022, astronauts on the International Space Station livestreamed a read-aloud of Goodnight Moon to students worldwide to mark its 75th anniversary.

Margaret Wise Brown, the author of Goodnight Moon, never married and had no biological or adopted children of her own, but she had an innate understanding of children.  As an educator, Brown was influenced by Lucy Sprague Mitchell, founder of the Bank Street College of Education in New York, where Brown studied. Mitchell’s “Here and Now” philosophy taught that children learn best by focusing on what’s happening in their lives here and now, and not by fantastical tales found in fairy tales. Margaret had spent a good deal of time interacting with children at the school. She read stories to them, noted their reactions, and determined that anyone wanting to reach children through stories first needed know their world.

Given “Goodnight Moon’s” success, Brown was right.

Her personal life, however, was more complicated.

Margaret had a lonely childhood and a troubled family life. Her mother struggled with depression, something from which Brown herself would suffer. She had a number of engagements – all broken – and a tempestuous 10-year relationship with poet and actress Blanche Oelrichs also known as Michael Strange. She later fell in love with a much younger man, James Stillman Rockefeller Jr., but their plans to marry were tragically cut short.

Margaret was only 42 when she died in 1952. While on a European book tour in Nice, France, she developed appendicitis that required emergency surgery. The operation was successful, and she was recovering well, but as she was about to be discharged from the hospital, she showed off her improved health to the nurses by kicking her leg into the air. The kick dislodged a blood clot in her leg that went straight to her heart and killed her instantly. Margaret was engaged to “Pebble” Rockefeller Jr., at the time, and they had intended to marry and honeymoon after the tour.

In accordance with her will, she was cremated, her ashes scattered at her beloved island home on Vinalhaven Island in Maine. Her headstone was engraved with the epitaph she wrote for herself: “Margaret Wise Brown / Writer of Songs and Nonsense.” Under those words, her loved ones added, “Dear Margaret, You gave us all so much—a chance to love, a place to rest, a window into living.”

Margaret Wise Brown was described as an eccentric who embraced a bohemian lifestyle. It seems she never lost her sense of whimsy and adventure, and that brings us to Crispin’s Crispian.

Margaret had originally owned a Kerry Blue Terrier named “Smoke.” She adored Smoke and took him everywhere, including editorial meetings and visits to her publisher. After Smoke died, Michael Strange offered to get Margaret a new Kerry Blue Terrier.  Margaret chose the unruliest puppy of the litter and named him after a Shakespearean character from Henry IV.  Crispin became infamous for his mischievous behavior and was the inspiration for Margaret’s book,  Mister Dog: The Dog Who Belonged to Himself, the story of a dog who enjoys his independence and routines.

As far as we can tell, Crispin was left in the care of Margaret’s family after her death. According to the website, hatchingcatnyc.com, Margaret had requested that Crispin be cared for by an old friend, but a news article writes that her sister, Roberta Rauch, was bequeathed $20,000 to take care of the terrier. It’s a terrific read with interesting photos, and anyone interested in Brown and Crispin will want to read it

Image by Anastasiya Pozniak/Dreamstime