75 Years of Goodnight Moon!

A celebratory visual playlist

Sep 03, 2022

Today (September 3rd) is the 75th anniversary of Goodnight Moon, written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd —one of the most famous picture books of all time (and one of my very favorites!). I wanted to write something for this special occasion, but life got in the way. So instead, I’ve compiled a Goodnight Moon visual playlist. I use the term “visual playlist” loosely since some things you’ll read, others you’ll listen to or watch. It’s like a Tumblr-inspired mood board/guide designed for you to explore and revisit. I hope that something you encounter in this email sends you down an exciting rabbit hole or, if you’re not a Margaret Wise Brown Super Fan, that after spending time learning about her and reading more of her writing, you become one. Not everything is tied to Goodnight Moon and Margaret Wise Brown; some aren’t related at all, but they evoke a similar feeling—and to me, Goodnight Moon IS a feeling.

“‘Goodnight Moon,’ which celebrates its seventy-fifth anniversary this year—delighted, surprised, and sometimes disturbed.”—Anna Holmes, The New Yorker

Spread from Goodnight Moon (1947) written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd

My difficulty is that I am writing to a rhythm and not to a plot.

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

Virginia Woolf
Letter to Ethel Smyth
August 28th, 1930

The Radical Woman Behind “Goodnight Moon”

Article written by Anna Holmes for “The New Yorker” (2022)

I’ve scoured the internet for interesting, well-written pieces on Margaret Wise Brown. I also read both of the biographies about her (Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon by Leonard S. Marcus and In the Great Green Room by Amy Gary). But unfortunately, in my opinion, I’ve not found many pieces that really get MWB and capture her essence (and some are just plain terrible). This recent piece by Anna Holmes for “The New Yorker” was a good one.

‘Goodnight Moon' Author Margaret Wise Brown Was No Old Lady Whispering Hush

Radio program by NPR (2017)

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Selected Poems by Michael Strange (1928)

The Eternal Lyric of Love and Loss: “Goodnight Moon” Author Margaret Wise Brown’s Little-Known Poems for the Tragic Love of Her Life

Article written by Maria Popova for “The Marginalian” (2022)

Snippet from “EMOTIONAL”
by Michael Strange

LEAN your mouth well over into the moonlight
So that I may kiss it full, O chance--
Press me into your pungent arms
So jagged with nightmare--so rent with spasmodic glories--
So pliant with momentary relaxing-

HE AND SHE
by Margaret Wise Brown

Put a he on a he
Or a she on a she
And it never adds up
To 1 2 3
Put a he on a she
Or a she on a he
And before you can even say Jack Robinson
You’ve made 3
He times she divided by he
Then take away she
And now what have you left —
A he or a she
And what’s this strange geometry
Within the heart of you and me
This place apart
This secret heart
When all is what
It seems to be

COULD I TELL YOU THAT I LOVE YOU
by Margaret Wise Brown

Could I tell you that I love you
And never say it so
Could I show you that I love you
Without the out the outward show
And then you smile
Because you know.

The “great green room” in “Goodnight Moon,” a first sketch by Clement Hurd via The New Yorker

Francisco de Goya’s Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga (1784–92)

“When Brown commissioned Hurd for the project, she also sent him a copy of Francisco de Goya’s Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga (1784–92), which features a little boy in red, for inspiration.” Artsy.net

The illustrator Clement Hurd

'Goodnight Moon,' Smokeless Version 🚬

Article by Edward Wyatt for “The New York Times” (2005)

Snippet from The Collected Works of C.G. Jung (1958) Edited by Herbert Read, Michael Fordham, and Gerhard Adler

What Writers Can Learn From Goodnight Moon

Article by author Celeste Ng for “The Atlantic” (2017)

Full Moon Playlist on Spotify 🌝

By me, Taylor Sterling.

The World Is Round (1939) written by Gertrude Stein and illustrated by Clement Hurd

The Important Thing About Margaret Wise Brown (2019) written by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Sarah Jacoby

Of all the things written about Margaret Wise Brown, I think this picture book captures her best.

THe iMPoRtANT BLoG

A Tumblr by illustrator Sarah Jacoby about the making of The Important Thing About Margaret Wise Brown picture book.

Snippet from The Important Thing About Margaret Wise Brown by Mac Barnett (pages 40-41)

Goodnight Moon (ft. Mac Barnett, Sarah Jacoby, & Loren Long)

A podcast episode about Goodnight Moon and Margaret Wise Brown by “Remember Readings Podcast” from HarperCollins (2019)

“Goodnight Moon and Other Sleepytime Tales” (HBO 1999)

Goodnight Nobody

A podcast by “99% Invisible”

“The unlikely battle between the creator of the New York Public Library children's reading room and the beloved children’s classic Goodnight Moon.”

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A few books to check out:

Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom by Leonard S. Marcus
Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children's Literature as an Adult
Bruce Handy
The Runaway Bunny written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd
Little Fur Family written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Garth Williams
The Important Book written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Leonard Weisgard
Mister Dog written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Garth Williams
Wait Till the Moon Is Full written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Garth Williams

What is there to tell beyond the endearing humanity of one on a scale more intense and larger than others? And the significance — aliveness and honesty in their own years… All the long-range back and forth in the shuffle and shuttle of being alive. And the preservation of a few of the heights in all the years. For I believe that at five we reach a point not to be achieved again and from which ever after we at best keep and most often go down from. And so at 2 and 13, at 20 & 30 & 21 & 18 — each year has the newness of its own awareness to one alive. Alive — and life. That is the significance of… one who has dared to be gloriously good and gloriously bad in one life. No Limbo for her. Rather let life itself grow living monuments out of trees and living words so that death can never take from our half-lives this radiant living that was lived among us.

—Margaret Wise Brown, from her diary

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