Photo courtesy of Flickr.
By Amelia Scarponi ’23
Staff Writer
On March 25, award-winning children’s author Beverly Cleary died in Carmel Valley, California, at the age of 104. She is perhaps best known for her series of books about sisters Ramona and Beatrice “Beezus” Quimby growing up in small-town America. The HarperCollins press release about Cleary’s death praised her for “setting a standard for realistic children’s fiction” through the publication of over 40 books, adding, “Cleary has also inspired authors, including Judy Blume, to deal with the real issues in young readers’ lives.”
On March 27, Blume expressed her condolences and admiration for the late author on Twitter, stating, “Beverly Cleary! My inspiration. I wanted to write books like yours. I so regret never having met you. You will not be forgotten.” Blume retweeted a statement she once gave emphasizing her inspiration, which read, “The closest I got was when our mutual publisher switched a packet of fan mail quite a few years ago. She got mine, I got hers, and I admit I read a couple of letters meant for her. Most of them were about Ramona. Who doesn’t love Ramona?”
An only child, Cleary was born in McMinnville, Oregon, to parents Mable and Chester Bunn. Until the age of 6, she and her family lived on a farm in Yamhill, Oregon, “a town so small it had no library,” according to Cleary’s website. Her mother arranged to have books sent to Yamhill from the State Library and served as librarian in a room above their local bank.
In 1922, the family moved to Portland, Oregon, where her father pursued work as a bank security guard. Following the move, Cleary tested into the low-reading program at her grammar school despite her early love of books, an experience that influenced her later work. However, by the third grade, Cleary was a confident reader and an aspiring writer. The Guardian reported that, decades after her first book was published, she wrote, “The discovery, when I was about 8 years old, that I could actually read, and read with pleasure, was one of the most exciting moments of my life. From that moment on, as I read through the shelves of the library, I searched for, but was unable to find, the books I wanted to read most of all: books about the sort of children who lived in my neighbourhood, books that would make me laugh.”
Her first children’s book, “Henry Huggins,” inspired by a young boy she met while working as a librarian in Yakima, Washington, was published in 1950. Five years later, she published “Ramona and Beezus,” which readers immediately fell in love with, leading to an eight-book series. According to the Ramona and Beezus wiki page on fandom.com, “Ramona is a dreamer with an ‘overactive imagination.’” Ramona herself says her personality “makes the fun parts funner and the scary parts scarier,” adding that “it’s good to scare yourself once in a while.”
Writer Allison Hope explained the significance of Ramona as a character for CNN, stating, “Ramona is there for all of us pests who speak up in the meetings even when the men interrupt to talk over us. For us pests who show up unabashedly sporting our soccer shirts and our short hair and our big personalities and our we-don’t-take-crap-from-anyone attitude.”
In 1938, Cleary earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of California, Berkeley, where she would meet her future husband. The next year, she received a second Bachelor of Arts degree in library science from the University of Washington’s School of Librarianship (today the Information School). Shortly after graduation, she took a position as a children’s librarian at a public library in Yakima.
Cleary won numerous awards and honors, including the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for her substantial and lasting contributions to children’s literature, the Newbery Medal for her novel “Dear Mr. Henshaw” and the name of “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress. In 1984, she was nominated for the highly acclaimed international Hans Christian Andersen Award. Her website notes that “of greatest importance to … Cleary were the more than 35 statewide awards her books received, based on the direct votes of her young readers.”
Though Cleary is best known for her humorous and endearing children’s novels like “Runaway Ralph” (1970) and “Dear Mr. Henshaw” (1983), she also wrote two memoirs. “A Girl From Yamhill” (1988) recounts her childhood growing up during the Great Depression, and “My Own Two Feet” (1996) follows Cleary from college to the publication of her first novel.
In an interview for The Atlantic, Cleary said, “I hope children will be happy with the books I’ve written, and go on to be readers all of their lives.” Erica Hawes ’22 certainly was. She remembers Cleary fondly. She said, “I’m so sad to hear of her passing! Beverly Cleary was part of my childhood; her books definitely cultivated my love for reading. I first read ‘Dear Mr. Henshaw’ the summer before starting second grade, and I remember carrying it around in my backpack for the entire school year.”