Margaret Wise Brown (1910–1952)

Margaret Wise Brown wrote hundreds of books and stories before she died at the age of 42 after surgery for a burst appendix. According to a Web site dedicated to her, before Margaret began writing books for children, fairytales and fables dominated the world of illustrated stories. But Margaret, or Brownie, as her friends called her, wrote with the then "new" idea that children would rather read about their own lives instead. Many of her books are considered classics of the genre.