Marcia Brown

Marcia Joan Brown (July 13, 1918 – April 28, 2015) was an American writer and illustrator of more than 30 children's books. She won three annual Caldecott Medals from the American Library Association, six Caldecott Medal honors as an illustrator, recognizing the year's best U.S. picture book illustration, Many of her titles have been published in translation, including Afrikaans, German, Japanese, Spanish, and Xhosa-Bantu editions. Brown is known as one of the most honored illustrators in children's literature.

Life Brown was born on July 13, 1918, in Rochester, New York. She enrolled in the New York State College for Teachers, predecessor to the University at Albany. She taught at Cornwall High School in Cornwall, New York. Brown left teaching to work in the New York Public Library's Central Children's Room. Her first book was The Little Carousel, a 32-page picture book that she both wrote and illustrated, published by Scribner's in 1946.

Brown lived with her companion Janet Loranger, who was also her editor. Brown died on April 28, 2015, in Laguna Hills, California; she was 96 years old.

Awards For her contribution as a children's illustrator, Brown was U.S. nominee in both 1966 and 1976 for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition available to creators of children's books.

From 1955 to 1983, Brown won three Caldecott Medals, the annual American Library Association award to the illustrator of the year's "most distinguished American picture book for children" (only David Wiesner has also won three). Her books have been named Honor Books six times from 1947 to 1954. Stone Soup: An Old Tale, 1947 Henry Fisherman, 1949 Dick Whittington and his Cat, 1950 Skipper John's Cook,1951 Puss in Boots, 1952 The Steadfast Tin Soldier, 1953