Beverly Cleary

Early life

Beverly Atlee Bunn was born on April 12, 1916, in McMinnville, Oregon, to Chester Lloyd Bunn, a farmer, and Mable Atlee Bunn, a schoolteacher. Cleary was an only child and lived on a farm in rural Yamhill, Oregon, in her early childhood. She was raised Presbyterian. When she was six years old, her family moved to Portland, Oregon, where her father had secured a job as a bank security officer.

The adjustment from living in the country to the city was difficult for Cleary, and she struggled in school; in first grade, her teacher placed her in a group for struggling readers. Cleary said, "The first grade was sorted into three reading groups—Bluebirds, Redbirds and Blackbirds. I was a Blackbird. To be a Blackbird was to be disgraced. I wanted to read, but somehow could not."

With some work, Cleary's reading skills improved, but she eventually found reading boring, complaining that many stories were simple and unsurprising, and wondering why authors often did not write with humor or about ordinary people. However, on a rainy afternoon at home during Cleary's third-grade year, she found herself enjoying reading The Dutch Twins, a book by Lucy Fitch Perkins about the adventures of ordinary children. The book was an epiphany for her, and afterward, she started to spend a lot of time reading and at the library. By sixth grade, a teacher suggested that Cleary should become a children's writer based on essays she had written for class assignments.

After graduating from Portland's Grant High School in 1934, Cleary entered Chaffey Junior College in Ontario, California, which offered lower tuition fees than four-year universities, something many students needed during the Great Depression, with aspirations of becoming a children's librarian. After two years at Chaffey, she was accepted to the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1938. While in college, Cleary worked odd jobs to pay her tuition, including working as a seamstress and a chambermaid. In 1939, she graduated from the School of Librarianship at the University of Washington with a second bachelor's degree in library science and accepted a year-long position as a children's librarian in Yakima, Washington. Her parents disapproved of her relationship with Cleary, a Roman Catholic, so the couple eloped and were married in 1940. After World War II, they settled in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. In 1955, Cleary gave birth to twins, Malcolm and Marianne. She lived in Carmel Valley Village in California from the 1960s onwards.

Career

After her graduation from the University of Washington in 1939, she served as a children's librarian in Yakima, Washington, until 1940, and then as the post librarian at the U.S. Army Hospital on Camp John T. Knight in Oakland, California, from 1942 to 1945. She also worked at Sather Gate Book Shop in Berkeley before becoming a full-time writer for children.

As a children's librarian, Cleary empathized with her young patrons, who had difficulty finding books with characters they could identify with, Cleary has said, "I believe in that 'missionary spirit' among children's librarians. Kids deserve books of literary quality, and librarians are so important in encouraging them to read and selecting books that are appropriate."

Cleary's first book, Henry Huggins (1950), was the first in a series of fictional chapter books about Henry, his dog Ribsy, his neighborhood friend Beezus and her little sister Ramona. Like many of her later works, Henry Huggins is a novel about people living ordinary lives and is based on Cleary's own childhood experiences, the kids in her neighborhood growing up, as well as children she met while working as a librarian. Although her book was accepted by Morrow, the first publisher she sent it to, it had been initially rejected, and Cleary had added the characters of Beezus and Ramona while revising it.

Cleary's first book to center a story on the Quimby sisters, Beezus and Ramona, was published in 1955. A publisher asked her to write a book about a kindergarten student. Cleary resisted, because she had not attended kindergarten, but later changed her mind after the birth of her twins. By 1984, her books had sold 3.5 million copies in hardback.

Cleary also wrote two memoirs, one about her childhood, entitled A Girl from Yamhill (1988), and one about her years in college and as an adult up to writing her first book, entitled My Own Two Feet (1995). During a 2011 interview for the Los Angeles Times, at age 95, Cleary stated, "I've had an exceptionally happy career."

Critical significance

Cleary's books have been historically noted for their attention to the daily minutiae of childhood, specifically the experience of children growing up in middle-class families. Leonard S. Marcus, a children's literature historian, said of Cleary's work: "When you're the right age to read Cleary's books you're likely at your most impressionable time in life as a reader. [Her books] both entertain children and give them courage and insight into what to expect from their lives." Cleary's employment of humor has also been noted by critics; William Grimes of The New York Times wrote that Cleary used a "humorous, lively style" while "ma[king] compelling drama out of the everyday problems, small injustices and perplexing mysteries – adults chief among them – that define middle-class American childhood", while Roger Sutton of The Horn Book Magazine noted that "Cleary is funny in a very sophisticated way. She gets very close to satire, which I think is why adults like her, but she's still deeply respectful of her characters—nobody gets a laugh at the expense of another. I think kids appreciate that they're on a level playing field with adults."

Pat Pflieger, professor of children's literature at West Chester University, commented: "Cleary's books have lasted because she understands her audience. She knows they're sometimes confused or frightened by the world around them, and that they feel deeply about things that adults can dismiss." Eliza Dresang, professor in children and youth services at the University of Washington Information School, Cleary's alma mater, said, "Those books don't seem so radical now, but they were when she was writing them". Dresang added that Cleary's writing, "in terms of the topics [covered], the honesty, the accuracy, [and] the ability to portray real-life children", was decades ahead of her time. Twentieth-Century Children's Writers said, "Beverly Cleary's impact as a children's writer cannot be overestimated... her extraordinary talent in creating memorable young characters whose exuberant spirit and zest for life attract young and old readers alike."

Later life and death

Cleary's husband, Clarence, died in 2004. She celebrated her 100th birthday on April 12, 2016. On March 25, 2021, Cleary died at her retirement home in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, aged 104.

Honors and legacy

In 1975, Cleary won the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award from the American Library Association for "substantial and lasting contributions to children's literature". She was the U.S. nominee for the biennial international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1984. In April 2000, she was named Library of Congress Living Legend in the writers and artists category for her contributions to the cultural heritage of the United States. She received the National Medal of Arts in 2003.

Cleary's books have been published in over 25 different languages and have been recognized by many awards and honors. Dear Mr. Henshaw won the Newbery Medal in 1984, and Newbery Honors were conferred on Ramona and Her Father in 1978 and Ramona Quimby, Age 8 in 1982. She won the 1981 National Book Award in category children's fiction (paperback) for Ramona and Her Mother, a William Allen White Children's Book award for Socks (1973), the Catholic Library Association's Regina Medal (1980), and the Children's Book Council's Every Child Award (1985).

In 2012, Ramona the Pest was ranked number 24 among all children's novels in a survey published by the School Library Journal, a monthly with a primarily U.S. audience. The Mouse and the Motorcycle (89) and Ramona and Her Father (94) were also among the top 100.

Cleary has been mentioned as a major influence by other authors, including Laurie Halse Anderson, Judy Blume, Lauren Myracle, and Jon Scieszka.

Publisher HarperCollins recognizes Cleary's birthday, April 12, as National Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) Day, in promotion of sustained silent reading.

In Portland, Oregon, the Hollywood branch of the Multnomah County Library, near where she lived as a child, commissioned a map of Henry Huggins's Klickitat Street neighborhood for its lobby wall. Statues of her characters Henry Huggins, the Hugginses' dog Ribsy, and Ramona Quimby can be found in The Beverly Cleary Sculpture Garden for Children, which is part of Portland's Grant Park in the Hollywood-Fernwood neighborhood.

In 1997, the Central Library in downtown Portland, Oregon, which serves as the main branch of the Multnomah County Library system, dedicated its children's room as the Beverly Cleary Children's Library.

In 2004, the University of Washington Information School completed fund-raising for the Beverly Cleary Endowed Chair for Children and Youth Services to honor her work and commitment to librarianship.

Cleary has a 220-student residential hall named after her, Beverly Cleary Hall, at her alma mater, the University of California, Berkeley.

In April 2016, on the occasion of her 100th birthday, Oregon Public Broadcasting produced an original half-hour program, Discovering Beverly Cleary, which included an extensive interview with Cleary at age 99 at her home in Carmel, California, and photographs and stories from her life. It was broadcast in the spring of 2016 on PBS stations across the country.

On April 22, 2021, after her death, the United States Senate passed a resolution "honoring the life and legacy of award-winning children's author Beverly Cleary." It was sponsored by Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, Cleary's home state.

Works

Key: † Henry Huggins series (1950–1964), ‡ Ramona series (1955–1999)

• Henry Huggins, Morrow, 1950 †
• Ellen Tebbits, Morrow, 1951
• Henry and Beezus, Morrow, 1952 †
• Otis Spofford, Morrow, 1953
• Henry and Ribsy, Morrow, 1954 †
• Beezus and Ramona, Morrow, 1955 ‡
• Fifteen, Morrow, 1956
• Henry and the Paper Route, Morrow, 1957 †
• The Luckiest Girl, Morrow, 1958
• Jean and Johnny, Morrow, 1959
• The Hullabaloo ABC, Parnassus, 1960
• The Real Hole, Morrow, 1960
• Leave It to Beaver, Berkley, 1960
• Beaver and Wally, Berkley, 1961
• Here's Beaver!, Berkley, 1961
• Two Dog Biscuits, Morrow, 1961
• Emily's Runaway Imagination, Morrow, 1961
• Henry and the Clubhouse, Morrow, 1962 †
• Sister of the Bride, Morrow, 1963
• Ribsy, Morrow, 1964 †
• The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Morrow, 1965
• The Growing-Up Feet, Morrow, 1967
• Mitch and Amy, Morrow, 1967
• Ramona the Pest, Morrow, 1968 ‡
• Runaway Ralph, Morrow, 1970
• Socks, Morrow, 1973
• Ramona the Brave, Morrow, 1975 ‡
• Ramona and Her Father, Morrow, 1977 ‡
• Ramona and Her Mother, Morrow, 1979 ‡
• Ramona Quimby, Age 8, Morrow, 1981 ‡
• Ralph S. Mouse, Morrow, 1982
• Dear Mr. Henshaw, Morrow, 1983
• Ramona Forever, Morrow, 1984 ‡
• The Ramona Quimby Diary, Morrow, 1984
• Lucky Chuck, Morrow, 1984
• Janet's Thingamajigs, Morrow, 1987
• A Girl from Yamhill, Morrow, 1988
• Muggie Maggie, Morrow, 1990
• Strider, Morrow, 1991
• Petey's Bedtime Story, Morrow, 1993
• My Own Two Feet, Morrow, 1995
• Ramona's World, Morrow, 1999 ‡
• Two Times the Fun (omnibus containing The Real Hole, Two Dog Biscuits, The Growing-Up Feet, and Janet's Thingamajigs), Morrow, 2005

Adaptations

• Ramona (1988): Ten-part Canadian TV series starring Sarah Polley as eight year old Ramona Quimby.
• Ramona and Beezus (2010): Movie starring Joey King as Ramona and Selena Gomez as Beezus.

Notes

Cleary won the 1981 National Book Award for paperback children's fiction. From 1980 to 1983 in National Book Award history there were dual awards for hardcover and paperback books in many categories. Most of the paperback award-winners were reprints, including Ramona and Her Mother (1979).

References

References

1. (April 12, 2017). "100 Things You Might Not Know About Beverly Cleary to Celebrate Her 103rd Birthday". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
2. Springen, Karen. (April 2, 2006). "Beverly Cleary, Age 90". [[Newsweek]].
3. "Discover Author Beverly Cleary". [[Harper Collins]].
4. Larson, Sarah. (April 11, 2016). "Beverly Cleary, Age 100".
5. Schwarz, Benjamin. (July 2011). "My Ramona: How Beverly Cleary Captured Childhood". [[The Atlantic]].
6. (1981). "National Book Awards – 1981". [[National Book Foundation]].
7. (2013). "Beverly Cleary". [[Columbia University Press]].
8. "Beverly Cleary". [[The Biography Channel]].
9. Paul, Pamela. (April 8, 2011). "The Ageless Appeal of Beverly Cleary". The New York Times.
10. Gibbs, Hope Katz. (April 2010). "Bevery Cleary's World: Author Spotlight (reprinted from April 2010)". The Costco Connection.
11. (June 9, 2012). "The writing roots of a Yamhill girl: Essay on Beverly Cleary". The Oregonian.
12. Ulin, David L. (April 17, 2011). "Beverly Cleary's 'exceptionally happy career'". Los Angeles Times.
13. Italie, Hillel. (March 26, 2021). "Beverly Cleary, beloved children's author, dies at 104".
14. Shepherd-Hayes, Deborah. (1996). "A Guide for Using The Mouse and the Motorcycle in the Classroom". Teacher Created Resources.
15. "Beverly Cleary {{!}} Encyclopedia.com".
16. Brown, Rachael. (June 6, 2011). "A Beverly Cleary Pilgrimage, From Yamhill to Klickitat Street". [[The Atlantic]].
17. "September 2008 Columns Magazine Feature: Beverly Cleary: Kids Like Us".
18. (May 2, 2023). "Junior college".
19. "May 1997 – Looking Back".
20. Harmanci, Reyhan. (Summer 2010). "Extraordinarily Ordinary: Beverly Cleary Still Making Magic for Young Readers". California Magazine.
21. (March 26, 2020). "Beverly Cleary, beloved author who chronicled schoolyard scrapes and feisty kids, dies at 104". The Washington Post.
22. Parry, Doug. (March 26, 2021). "Beloved author Beverly Cleary, '39, passes away". Information School, University of Washington.
23. "Cleary, Beverly Bio". Educational Book and Media Association.
24. Bowman, John S.. (1995). "Beverly Cleary". Cambridge University Press.
25. "Historic California Posts: Camp John T. Knight".
26. (April 8, 2023). "Beverly Cleary, author".
27. Warren, Mary. (February 13, 2016). "Beloved Books, Timeless characters". Toronto Star.
28. Hewitt, Scott. (April 2, 2016). "As her 100th birthday nears, Cleary the subject of a new documentary". Columbian Arts.
29. (February 10, 2005). "Endowed seat in children's librarianship named for author Beverly Cleary". UW Today.
30. Egan, Elisabeth. (March 26, 2021). "Beverly Cleary Wrote About Real Life, and Her Readers Loved Her for It". The New York Times.
31. Sollosi, Mary. (April 12, 2016). "Ramona Quimby's greatest mishaps, in honor of Beverly Cleary's 100th birthday".
32. Cleary, Beverly. "An Interview with Beverly Cleary". Beverly Cleary Official Site.
33. Connell, Christopher. (3 May 1984). "Beverly Cleary : Two generations of Ramona, Beezus and Henry Huggins on Klickitat Street". Burlington Daily Times News.
34. Mead, Wendy. (April 12, 2016). "Happy 100th, Beverly Cleary! Celebrating the Kid's Lit Icon".
35. (April 2, 2006). "Beverly Cleary, Age 90".
36. Chevalier, Tracy (editor), ''Twentieth-Century Children's Writers'', St. James Press, 1989;
37. (June 25, 2004). "Clarence T. Cleary". The Monterey Herald.
38. (April 3, 2016). "Beverly Cleary on turning 100: Kids today 'don't have the freedom' I had". The Washington Post.
39. (April 12, 2016). "7 things you didn't know about Beverly Cleary". PBS Newshour.
40. Jaeger-Miller, Melissa. (April 11, 2016). "Beverly Cleary Is Turning 100, But She Has Always Thought Like A Kid". [[National Public Radio.
41. Grimes, William. (March 26, 2021). "Beverly Cleary, Beloved Children's Book Author, Dies at 104". [[The New York Times]].
42. "HarperCollins Mourns the Loss of Beloved Children's Book Author Beverly Cleary".
43. [http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/wildermedal/wilderpast "Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, Past winners"] {{webarchive. link. (April 22, 2016 . [[Association for Library Service to Children]] (ALSC). [[American Library Association]] (ALA). Retrieved June 8, 2013.
    [http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/wildermedal/wilderabout "About the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award"] {{webarchive). link. (April 21, 2016 . ALSC. ALA. Retrieved June 8, 2013.)
44. [https://archive.today/20130114185952/http://www.literature.at/viewer.alo?objid=14769&viewmode=fullscreen&scale=3.33&rotate=&page=105 "Candidates for the Hans Christian Andersen Awards 1956–2002"]. ''The Hans Christian Andersen Awards, 1956–2002''. [[IBBY]]. [[Gyldendal]]. 2002. pp. 110–118. Hosted by [[Austrian Literature Online]] (literature.at). Retrieved July 14, 2013.
45. "Meet Authors & Illustrators: Beverly Cleary".
46. (November 12, 2003). "President Bush Announces 2003 Medal of Arts Recipients". [[National Endowment for the Arts]] (nea.gov).
47. Bird, Elizabeth. (July 7, 2012). "Top 100 Chapter Book Poll Results". A Fuse #8 Production. Blog. [[School Library Journal]] (blog.schoollibraryjournal.com).
48. Staino, Rocco. (April 11, 2010). "Beverly Cleary Turns 94". School Library Journal.
49. "Drop Everything And Read". HarperCollins Publishers (dropeverythingandread.com).
50. "Beverly Cleary Sculpture Garden". Multnomah County Library.
51. Stern, Hank. (June 5, 2008). "Hurray for Ramona and Ribsy! Northeast Portland School to be named for Beverly Cleary". Willamette Week.
52. (2021). "House Concurrent Resolution 30".
53. "Headlines – Information School | University of Washington". Ischool.washington.edu.
54. "Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus Award Winners – Office of Ceremonies".
55. "Living at Cal – Unit 3". Housing.berkeley.edu.
56. "Season 17, Episode 11: Discovering Beverly Cleary". OPB TV.
57. (March 31, 2016). "Beverly Cleary, Nearing 100, Is to Be Celebrated at Symphony Space". The New York Times.
58. "All Beverly Cleary Titles". The World of Beverly Cleary.
59. Cleary, Beverly. (1950). ["Henry Huggins"](https://archive.org/details/henryhuggins00beve_0 }} Reprint: {{ISBN).
60. Cleary, Beverly. (1951). "Ellen Tebbits". Harper Collins}} Reprint: {{ISBN.
61. Cleary, Beverly. (1952). ["Henry and Beezus"](https://archive.org/details/henrybeezus00clea_0 }} Reprint: {{ISBN). HarperCollins.
62. Cleary, Beverly. (1953). ["Otis Spofford"](https://archive.org/details/otisspoffordrpkg00beve }} Reprint: {{ISBN). Harper Collins.
63. Cleary, Beverly. (1954). "Henry and Ribsy". Harper Collins}} Reprint: {{ISBN.
64. Cleary, Beverly. (1955). ["Beezus and Ramona"](https://archive.org/details/beezusandramona0000clear }} Reprint: {{ISBN). Harper Collins.
65. Cleary, Beverly. (1956). "Fifteen". Puffin Books}} Reprint: {{ISBN.
66. Cleary, Beverly. (1957). "Henry and the Paper Route". HarperCollins}} Reprint: {{ISBN.
67. Cleary, Beverly. (1958). "The Luckiest Girl". Morrow}} Reprint: {{ISBN.
68. Cleary, Beverly. (1959). ["Jean and Johnny"](https://archive.org/details/jeanjohnny00beve }} Reprint: {{ISBN).
69. Cleary, Beverly. (1960). ["The Hullabaloo ABC"](https://archive.org/details/hullabalooabc0000clea }} Reprint: {{ISBN). Harper Collins.
70. Cleary, Beverly. (1960). "The Real Hole". W. Morrow}} Reprint: {{ISBN.
71. Cleary, Beverly. (1960). "Leave it to Beaver". Berkley.
72. Cleary, Beverly. (1961). "Beaver and Wally". Amereon Limited}} Reprint: {{ISBN.
73. Cleary, Beverly. (1961). "Here's Beaver!".
74. "Beverly Cleary Bibliography". Scholastic.
75. Cleary, Beverly. (1962). "Henry and the clubhouse". William Morrow & Co..
76. Cleary, Beverly. (1963). "Sister of the bride". Morrow.
77. "Ramona on PBS".
78. Kilday, Gregg. (February 6, 2009). "Young actresses cast for 'Beezus and Ramona'". Reuters.