Cleary, Beverly, 1916–2021,
American children's books author, b. McMinnville, Ore. as Beverly Atlee
Bunn, Univ. of California, Berkeley (BA, 1938) . She began her career as a
children's librarian and realized the need for books about the lives of
ordinary children. Drawing on her own childhood, she wrote Henry
Huggins (1950), her first book, followed by 40 other novels for
children. Best known are the 14 books she wrote about Henry, his dog Ribsy,
his friend Beezuz, and her sister, the irrepressible Ramona. With their
timeless quality and gentle humor, her books have been enormously popular,
and she has won many awards including the Newbery and Laura Ingalls Wilder
medals, the National Medal of Art, and the Library of Congress's Living
Legend award.
See her memoirs, A Girl from Yamhill (1988) and My Own Two Feet (1995) (1988, 1995); studies by P. Pflieger (1991) and J. Kelly (1996).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
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