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In the Great Green Room: The Brilliant and Bold Life of Margaret Wise Brown by [Amy Gary]

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Amy Gary

In the Great Green Room: The Brilliant and Bold Life of Margaret Wise Brown Kindle Edition

by Amy Gary (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

142 ratings

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The extraordinary life of the woman behind the beloved children’s classics Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny comes alive in this fascinating biography of Margaret Wise Brown.

Margaret’s books have sold millions of copies all over the world, but few people know that she was at the center of a children’s book publishing revolution. Her whimsy and imagination fueled a steady stream of stories, book ideas, songs, and poems and she was renowned for her prolific writing and business savvy, as well as her stunning beauty and endless thirst for adventure.

Margaret started her writing career by helping to shape the curriculum for the Bank Street School for children, making it her mission to create stories that would rise above traditional fairy tales and allowed girls to see themselves as equal to boys. At the same time, she also experimented endlessly with her own writing. Margaret would spend days researching subjects, picking daisies, cloud gazing, and observing nature, all in an effort to precisely capture a child’s sense of awe and wonder as they discovered the world.

Clever, quirky, and incredibly talented, Margaret embraced life with passion, lived extravagantly off of her royalties, went on rabbit hunts, and carried on long and troubled love affairs with both men and women. Among them were two great loves in Margaret’s life. One was a gender-bending poet and the ex-wife of John Barrymore. She went by the stage name of Michael Strange and she and Margaret had a tempestuous yet secret relationship, at one point living next door to each other so that they could be together. After the dissolution of their relationship and Michael’s death, Margaret became engaged to a younger man, who also happened to be the son of a Rockefeller and a Carnegie. But before they could marry Margaret died unexpectedly at the age of forty-two, leaving behind a cache of unpublished work and a timeless collection of books that would go on become classics in children’s literature.

In In the Great Green Room, author Amy Gary captures the eccentric and exceptional life of Margaret Wise Brown, and drawing on newly-discovered personal letters and diaries, reveals an intimate portrait of a creative genius whose unrivaled talent breathed new life in to the literary world.

Print length

305 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Flatiron Books
Publication date

January 10, 2017
File size

40300 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Thanks to Any Gary's insightful biography...now I see a colorful, vibrant woman who had complicated love affairs, a unique ability to see the world through a child's eyes, and who was constantly recreating life on her own terms.

-- "Amazon.com, editorial review"

In the Great Green Room animates for readers an extraordinary life devoted to satisfying every curiosity and deepening every meaning.

-- "Tracy Daugherty, New York Times bestselling author"

A true discovery....A lively portrait of a woman writer and editor who deserves to be widely known for her work.

-- "Irene Gammel, author of Looking for Anne of Green Gables"

Gary adds to the portrait we have of Brown with never-before-seen materials she uncovered in 1990, including manuscripts, diaries, and letters.

-- "Publishers Weekly"

The unconventional life of Margaret Wise Brown...is portrayed with sympathy and novelistic detail in this page-turning biography.

-- "BookPage" --This text refers to the audioCD edition.

About the Author

Amy Gary has cataloged, edited, and researched all of Margaret Wise Brown's writings for the last twenty-five years. Amy's work has been covered in Vanity Fair, Entertainment Weekly, and the Wall Street Journal. She was formerly the director of publishing at Lucasfilm and headed the publishing department at Pixar Animation studios.

--This text refers to the mp3_cd edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01HB7GGS4
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Flatiron Books (January 10, 2017)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 10, 2017
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 40300 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 305 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #228,237 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #28 in Biographies of Educators (Kindle Store)
- #294 in Biographies & Memoirs of Authors
- #322 in Journalist Biographies

Customer Reviews:
142 ratings

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Amy Gary

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In 1990, Amy Gary discovered unpublished manuscripts and songs from Margaret Wise Brown tucked away in a trunk in the attic of Margaret’s sister’s barn. Since then, Gary has catalogued, edited, and researched all of Margaret’s writings. Amy’s work on Margaret has been covered in Vanity Fair, Entertainment Weekly, and on NPR. She was formerly the Director of Publishing at Lucasfilm and headed the publishing department at Pixar Animation studios. In addition to writing, she packages books for retailers and publishers. In that capacity, she has worked with Sam’s Wholesale, Books-a-Million, Sterling Publishers, and Charles Schultz Creative Associates. Her biography on Margaret, In the Great Green Room, will be published by Flatiron Books, a division of Macmillan, in January 2017.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

142 global ratings

5 star		69%
4 star		14%
3 star		9%
2 star		6%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Franzi Thompson

Fabulous Biography

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 23, 2023

Verified Purchase

Loved it all. Love the subject.

Helpful

Kerry L Daniel

Boring Subject + Boring Author = Boring Book!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 12, 2022

Verified Purchase

I was moved to order this book after reading a glowing review by the publisher of a blog called "The Marginalia." I remembered reading "Goodnight Moon" to children I babysat for when I was a teenager, and I love reading biographical works on the lives of women writers--especially women who made their way in the world at a time in our history when women had more limited oportunities. Sadly, the only thing I came away with after reading this book is, " What a pitiful woman Margaret Wise Brown was." She could never have written anything interesting for adults because she never attained the emotional maturity beyond the age group her children's stories were written for. Throughout her adulthood she seemed to be in a state of arrested development. At the the start of the book, I looked forward to learning more about Margaret--her dreams, her life and a peek into her soul perhaps. The author, Amy Gary, provided about 30 pages of sources, so her book was well researched...but sadly, there were no annecdotes or first-hand stories by anyone who knew Brown well. So at the end of the book the reader is left feeling Brown is a rather shallow, one dimensional person. It is no wonder that none of her adult relationships were ever developed into deep, rich connections. Brown was too childish to have a mature relationship with anyone -- man or woman. I almost gave up on the book about halfway through--the writing was so choppy and uninteresting. But at one point I realized that nearly a third of the book was devoted to acknowledgments and sources, so I really didn't have much further to read so I finished it. I am sorry I invested time and money on this drivel. There are so many good books to read, but this for me was not one of them.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

DeMi Reader

A Delightful Likeable Story

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 1, 2017

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This book was delightful and likeable. It was easy to read and introduced me to the author of a favorite bedtime story book - Goodnight Moon.

Margaret’s spirit of adventure was impressive. As the subtitle states she was brilliant and bold! Her ability to see the world through a childlike lens is something to be admired and it was the key to her success as a children’s author. This book brought home the importance of positive parent to child relationships. I loved the fact that Margaret was loyal and selfless when it came to her illustrators. She ensured that the illustrators of her books could make a living wage for their craft. Read this book and be inspired to live life as your true self.

Note: The book includes several pages of photographs (not sure if they can be seen in the ebook version). These photos are the icing on the cake of Margaret's story.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Andrea Harris

Margaret Wise Brown wrote the best children's books ever

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 25, 2019

Verified Purchase

Margaret Wise Brown wrote the texts to my favorite books as a child. My introduction to her, at about age 4, was MISTER DOG; THE DOG WHO BELONGED TO HIMSELF. Now I know she named the dog in the book after her own dog. Even better! Her most frequent illustrator, Garth Williams, made his animals come alive on the page, and the little boy who belonged to himself, who took Crispin's Crispian, the dog, into his house, is unforgettable. I learned that Brown was a failed writer of adult fiction, and lived a rather unconventional life, but she never failed to capture my attention in her wonderful children's books.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Alex W

It's a fantastic look at Margaret Wise Brown's life

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 28, 2017

Verified Purchase

We all remember the effect that Margaret's books had on our childhoods. Now, as an adult, I feel the same way about this book. It's a fantastic look at Margaret Wise Brown's life. The author really takes you inside her head and makes you feel as if you are right there as she is going through her life. The descriptions are vivid and it keeps you wanting to read more. The book has the information of a biography but is page turning like a novel, which is great.

A legend like Margaret Wise Brown is really defined by some of her most popular works like goodnight moon, but In the Great Green Room really went beyond those and revealed fascinating information about her life and the often tragic love affairs she was involved in. The book is well worth reading as an interesting portrait of a fascinating person, even if you did not grow up reading her children's books.

If you've made it this far in my review, quit thinking and just buy this book.

8 people found this helpful

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Kindle Fever

A Genuine, Likable Quirk

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 13, 2017

Verified Purchase

If you are an adult avid reader, it may be because someone read to you when you were very young. Do you remember your favorite author? Probably not. However, the book you loved may have been "Goodnight Moon", authored by Margaret Wise Brown the subject of this wonderful biography by Amy Gary. Margaret never lost the ability to see the world through a child's eyes. That's what made her books so successful and what made her life so interesting. She was "quirky" and usually followed her own instincts rather than be swayed by others. I wish I could have known her!

14 people found this helpful

Helpful

Lavender

Goodnight Margaret

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 31, 2018

Verified Purchase

I thoroughly enjoyed finding out about the life of this beloved children's book author. It satisfied my curiosity because it was so well researched. Honestly, though, it wasn't wonderfully written. It was a little too choppy for my taste, but it was easy reading. I wish the photos had been inserted in the sections they pertained to, instead of all being at the end. I also wish there were more pictures and examples of the artwork in her books.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

James A. Boone

Amy has done a brilliant job of bringing Margaret Wise Browns life alive for ...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 18, 2017

Verified Purchase

Amy has done a brilliant job of bringing Margaret Wise Browns life alive for contemporary readers. She has been able to enhance our understanding of this remarkable woman. This is a great addition to the knowledge and experience of Margaret and combined with Leonard Marcus's biography, we can fully experience and admire this talented, sensitive, eccentric and beautiful person.

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

David Wegenast

This is a great insight into the life of Margaret Wise Brown

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 13, 2017

Verified Purchase

This is a great insight into the life of Margaret Wise Brown, a truly wonderful free spirit. The author brings us into the life of U.S. high society in the 1940s, and a woman who loved life in the natural world to its fullest...beautiful!

One person found this helpful

Dan

The complicated woman behind 'Good Night Moon'

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 26, 2017

Verified Purchase

Amy Gary's witty biography of Margaret Wise Brown tells the story in language reminiscent of the children's stories themselves: wise, lucid, never condescending.With photographs.

One person found this helpful

Amazon Customer

I loved the story although parts of it were quite sad

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on February 4, 2017

Verified Purchase

As a retired teacher, I remembered reading many of Margaret Wise Brown's books to my young students, so I was excited to come across this biography. What a life she had. I loved the story although parts of it were quite sad.
I still have a copy of "The Important Book". I look forward to reading it to my grandson in the near future.

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