Marcia Brown

 Marcia Joan Brown (July 13, 1918 – April 28, 2015) illustrated more than 30 children’s books. She is one of only two artists who has won three Caldecott Medals- for the most distinguished American Picture Book of the year- from the American Library Association (David Wiesner is the other). Brown has also won six Caldecott Honors and the ALA’s Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal in 1992 for her career contribution to children’s literature. She was the United States nominee in both 1966 and 1976 for the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition available to creators of children’s books, and she received the 1977 Regina Medal from the Catholic Libraries Association. As an illustrator, Brown employed a diverse range of styles and media, including woodcuts, collage, pen-and-ink drawings, watercolors and gouache. She  is one of the most innovative and honored picture book illustrators of our time.

Brown was born in Rochester NY, and graduated from the New York State College for Teachers, She taught high school English for several years before moving to New York City, where she worked in the central children’s room of the New York Public Library. She later retired to Laguna Hills, California.

Brown loved to retell traditional tales from around the world. “The heritage of childhood is the sense of life bequeathed to it by the folk wisdom of the ages,” she said. “It is a privilege to pass these truths on to children who have a right to the fullest expression we can give them.”