Cleary published his first book, “Henry Huggins”, in 1950, and more than 40 other books in the following years, according to Harper Collins. Cleary’s books have sold more than 85 million copies and have been translated into 29 different languages.
Its protagonists were pests, treats, bullies and dreamers, sometimes all at the same time. She carved out memories of her youth and the struggles of children she knew to capture children’s views of the adult world, where fathers sometimes lost their jobs and mothers sometimes were alone.
“Looking back, she used to say, ‘I had a lucky life,’ and generations of kids also consider themselves lucky – lucky to have the real characters that Beverly Cleary created, including Henry Huggins, Ramona and Beezus Quimby Ralph S. Mouse, as true friends who helped shape their years of growth, “said Murphy.
Cleary was born Beverly Bunn in McMinnville, Oregon, on April 12, 1916, and spent her early years on a farm in the neighboring town of Yamhill. When the Bunn family moved to Portland, Oregon, a school librarian encouraged young Beverly to write children’s books. The council stayed with her during her studies at what is now Chaffey College in California, at the University of California, Berkeley and at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she studied library science.
In Berkeley, she met her husband, Clarence Cleary, and the two were married in 1940.
‘You can curl up with a book’
After college, she worked as a children’s librarian until she started writing. According to Harper Collins, Cleary’s dream of writing for children was rekindled when “a little boy stared at me across the circulation table and said, ‘Where are the books about kids like us?'”
His books featuring Henry Huggins, his dog, Ribsy, and the children on Klickitat Street, which included Beezus and his younger sister, Ramona found a large audience with young readers.
She received the National Book Award for children’s fiction in 1981 for “Ramona and Her Mother” and, in 1975, won the Laura Ingalls Wilder award from the American Library Association for “a substantial and lasting contribution to children’s literature”.
“Dear Mr. Henshaw” won the John Newbery medal in 1984 for his most distinguished contribution to American children’s literature. The book is about a lonely boy who starts a correspondence with the author of a children’s book.
In 2000, she was named Live Legend by the Library of Congress and, in 2003, she received the National Endowment of the Arts National Art Medal.
“We at HarperCollins also feel extremely lucky to have worked with Beverly Cleary and to have enjoyed his brilliant intelligence,” said Murphy. “His timeless books are an affirmation of his eternal connection with the pleasures, challenges and triumphs that are part of every childhood”,
Her latest book, “Ramona’s World”, was published in 1999, decades after the perpetually naughty little sister first debuted in “Henry Huggins”.
Her husband died in 2004. She left her two children, Malcolm and Marianne, three grandchildren and a great-grandchild.
In her 90s, Cleary said she expects children to still read her books in the coming decades.