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

by Amy Gary Narrated by Bernadette Dunne

Overview

For decades children and their parents around the world have cuddled together to read Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny. While the lulling words of these stories have formed nighttime rituals for millions, few know that these classic works were part of a publishing revolution led by Margaret Wise Brown, who was renowned not only for her prolific writing and creative genius, but also for her stunning beauty and thirst for adventure.

In 1990 author Amy Gary discovered unpublished manuscripts, songs, personal letters, and diaries from Margaret tucked away in a trunk in the attic of Margaret's sister's barn. Since then, Gary has pored over these works and with this unique insight into Margaret's world she chronicles her rise in the literary world. Clever, quirky, and wildly imaginative, Margaret embraced life with passion, threw wild parties, attended rabbit hunts, and lived extravagantly off of her royalties. She carried on long and troubled love affairs with both men and women, including the ex-wife of John Barrymore, and was engaged to a younger man, who was the son of a Carnegie and a Rockefeller, when she died unexpectedly at the age of forty-two.

In the Great Green Room captures the exceptional spirit of Margaret whose unrivaled talent breathed new life into the literary world.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"In a biography full of lively anecdotes, this one stands out for the way it encapsulates what must have made Margaret Wise Brown so enchanting to her friends and colleagues.... If the measure of a good life story is the longing it leaves in the reader to have known the subject, this one more than succeeds." —The Wall Street Journal

"Margaret Wise Brown's story reads as a stirring evocation of a woman who insisted on freedom in her art and in her love life." —USA Today

"In the Great Green Room brings renewed attention to the contrast between Margaret Wise Brown's private life and her status as a celebrated children's author. Drawing on personal letters and diaries, author Amy Gary draws a colorful portrait." —The Washington Post

"[In the Great Green Room] offers compelling insights into this remarkable woman." —Los Angeles Review of Books

"Gary has used her unrivaled familiarity with the author's life and times to craft a vivid portrait.... Gary smoothly intertwines the story of the writing of these now-classic books with the complicated and often tumultuous twists of Brown's personal life, and the effect is both intimate and revelatory." —The Christian Science Monitor

“Goodnight Moon is less a story than an incantation. It summons a cocoon around reader and listener, a sensation of being pulled out of the hurly-burly of the world into a pocket of charmed tranquility. Amy Gary’s new biography, In the Great Green Room: The Brilliant and Bold Life of Margaret Wise Brown, replicates this spell for adult readers.” —Slate

"Margaret Wise Brown's life—from her revolutionary career to her scandalous love affairs—is offered up to readers and makes for great storytelling—bedtime or otherwise."—Town & Country Magazine

"Amy Gary's In the Great Green Room is as brilliant and bold as the literary life she chronicles. The amazing story of Margaret Wise Brown will inspire readers and all those who would aspire to a Writer's life." —Terrance G. Finley, Books-A-Million President's Pick

"Gary adds to the portrait we have of [Margaret Wise Brown] with never-before-seen materials she uncovered in 1990, including manuscripts, diaries, and letters." —Publishers Weekly

"For children's literature buffs and fans of intriguing biographies, In the Great Green Room is a must read." —BookPage

"Through Amy Gary's fascinating biography, readers can meet the woman who created [Goodnight Moon], and learn of her remarkable and quite unusual life." —Bookreporter.com

"Measured, wise, and thrilling in its clarity, Amy Gary's In the Great Green Room animates for readers an extraordinary life devoted to satisfying every curiosity and deepening every meaning. Not content with the cosmos as she found them, Margaret Wise Brown renamed the stars until she knew them on her terms. In her generous books, she gave this magical power of recreation to generations of children and their parents. Now, Amy Gary has extended this same gift to Brown." —Tracy Daugherty, author of The Last Love Song: A Biography of Joan Didion

“Amy Gary’s In the Great Green Room is a true discovery…. Drawing on unpublished manuscripts, Gary’s narrative is informative as it is riveting, creating a lively portrait of a woman writer and editor who deserves to be widely known for her work, while [Margaret Wise] Brown’s impulsive desire and emotional vulnerability creates moments that ultimately leave the reader with a sense of both exuberant uplift and haunting loss.” —Irene Gammel, author of Looking for Anne of Green Gables

"What a fascinating (and at times melancholy) life.... The author's writing style was captivating and moving...I couldn't stop reading about this extraordinary woman and wished she had received the attention and acclaim she deserved. And a tragic ending of her life and a missed opportunity to finally be happy in a relationship brought me to tears.... [This book] would be an inspiration to anyone wanting to become a writer." —Robin Beerbower, EarlyWord.com

Library Journal

02/01/2017
A prolific writer of children's books, including Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny, Margaret Wise Brown (1910–52) led the unsettled, eccentric life one might expect of a poet. Gary, who has studied Brown since 1990, captures the author's madcap refusal to grow up that endeared her to friends and may have helped her writing. While Gary does trace her subject's professional accomplishments, she focuses on the personal. Raised in a privileged but troubled family, Brown was adventurous and imaginative at a young age, preferring sports, animals, and her friends to school. After graduating from Hollins College in Roanoke, VA, she moved to New York and took a job editing children's books. Influenced by Gertrude Stein, she tried writing herself, embracing real-world stories for children, and found she had considerable talent, even though she didn't particularly like children. After that, her reputation and success grew, although she never wrote any "grown-up" literature of consequence. Brown's complicated personal life included numerous romantic adventures, most notably a ten-year relationship with poet/playwright/actress Blanche Oelrichs, former wife of John Barrymore. VERDICT Recommended for readers interested in children's literature and author biographies. [See Prepub Alert, 7/18/16.]—Nancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo

JANUARY 2017 - AudioFile

Bernadette Dunne offers a warm and even-tempered narration of this biography of the surprising woman who gave the world GOODNIGHT MOON and many other children’s books. Dunne’s calm rendition is rather at odds with the tempestuous personality of Margaret Wise Brown, but given the complications of her short, emotion-filled life, it’s probably a good vocal choice. Relying on a treasure trove of unpublished writing, as well as interviews and extensive reading of Wise Brown’s work, author Amy Gary demonstrates how much Wise Brown helped change the look, sound, and subject matter of children’s books. Between them, Gary and Dunne offer an intriguing portrait of the woman who helped millions of children through their early years. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169723267
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	01/10/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged

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