Margaret Wise Brown, May 10, 1910 - November 13, 1952 Margaret Wise Brown was born on May 10, 1910 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York, to Robert Brown, a Vice President at American Manufacturing Company and Maud Brown, a housewife. She attended school in Lausanne, Switzerland for three years, before attending Dana Hall in Wellesley, Massachusetts for two years. In 1928, she began taking classes at Hollis College in Virginia. In 1935, Brown began working at the Bank Street Cooperative School for student teachers. Two years later, her writing career took off with the publication of "When the Wind Blows." Over the course of fourteen years, Brown wrote over one hundred picture books for… children. Margaret Wise Brown died on November 13, 1952 of an embolism following an operation in Nice, France.
Alice Provensen was born on August 14th, 1918 in Chicago, Illinois. Provensen attended the University of California. After college, she worked with Walter Lantz Studio, the creators of Woody Woodpecker. It was here where she met her future husband, Martin Provensen, as he was assigned to Walter Lantz Studio while creating training films for the American military. In 1944, Alice and Martin married. They relocated to Washington DC and later to New York City. In New York, they found their first illustrating job. They became known as an author-illustrator picture book team, creating many award-winning picture books including the 1984 Caldecott Medal book: A Glorious Flight: Across the Channel… with Louis Bleriot. They continued to write together at Maple Hill Farms in New York where they raised their daughter. They wrote about their simple life and animal friends in: A Year at Maple Hill Farm. Martin Provensen died of a heart attack in 1987. Alice Provensen's inquisitive nature and passion for research led her to continue writing. Her first publication after her husband's death was The Buck Stops Here: The Presidents of the United States which was published in 1990.