{"id":1173,"date":"2021-03-29T17:53:35","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T17:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/?p=1173"},"modified":"2021-03-29T17:53:35","modified_gmt":"2021-03-29T17:53:35","slug":"celebrating-the-life-and-legacy-of-childrens-author-beverly-cleary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2021\/03\/celebrating-the-life-and-legacy-of-childrens-author-beverly-cleary.html","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Children’s Author Beverly Cleary"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Public Domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Beverly Cleary was a children\u2019s book author famous for her fictional character creations adored by millions of children and adults worldwide. Since 1950, Cleary wrote over 40 books and became one of America\u2019s most successful authors.<\/p>\n

Cleary passed away last Thursday in Carmel, CA. She was 104 years old. HarperCollins Publishers, Cleary\u2019s publishing company, reported the tragic news Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are saddened by the passing of Beverly Cleary, one of the most beloved children\u2019s authors of all time,\u201d HarperCollins Publishers President Suzanne Murphy said in the publishing company\u2019s announcement of Cleary\u2019s death. \u201cLooking back, she\u2019d often say, \u2018I\u2019ve had a lucky life,\u2019 and generations of children count themselves lucky too \u2014 lucky to have the very real characters Beverly Cleary created, including Henry Huggins, Ramona and Beezus Quimby, and Ralph S. Mouse, as true friends who helped shape their growing-up years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cleary\u2019s books had a massive international outreach. Over 91 million copies of her books have been sold globally in 29 different languages. Cleary\u2019s humorous books have such an astronomical effect on people because they are relatable. The Oregon native molded the stories after her childhood and what she had witnessed others experience. She illustrated the struggles of everyday life, such as a parent losing their job or parenting alone, from a child\u2019s perspective. The iconic stories conveyed problems that many faced, particularly a middle-class American childhood. Characters like the whimsical Romona Quimby diving into her wild imagination to escape the hardships of her family\u2019s financial circumstances are something that many can resonate with.<\/p>\n

Cleary went beyond the typical perfect personality of the protagonists for her works. The main characters ranged from nuisances to bullies to goody-two-shoes. The children\u2019s book author\u2019s most famous characters were Henry Huggins, Risby the dog, Ralph S. Mouse, Romona Quimby, and Beezus Quimby. Cleary\u2019s creations have even been portrayed in film adaptations such as the 2010 movie \u201cRomona and Beezus\u201d<\/a> starring acclaimed actors Selena Gomez as \u201cBeezus Quimby\u201d and Joey King as \u201cRomona Quimby\u201d.<\/p>\n

Beverly Cleary was born in McMinnville, OR, on April 12. 1916. The only child spent her youth on a farm in the neighboring town, Yamhill. Then her family moved to Portland. A teacher at Cleary\u2019s school encouraged her to become a children\u2019s book author after reading papers she wrote for class. The words of encouragement resonated with young Cleary through her various studies at Chaffey College, UC Berkeley and the University of Washington, where she received bachelor\u2019s degrees in English and Librarianship. Cleary met her husband Clarence at Berkeley, and the couple got married in 1940.<\/p>\n

Following her time in college, Cleary worked as a children\u2019s librarian and started her writing. According to HarperCollins, the catalyst for Cleary\u2019s theme of relatable book plots was when a boy at the library asked her, \u201cWhere are the books about kids like us?\u201d.<\/p>\n

Cleary\u2019s works began getting published in 1950, and with that grew a large fanbase of young readers. Cleary\u2019s final book,\u201d Ramona\u2019s World,\u201d was published in 1999, almost 50 years after the pesky and imaginative sister made her debut in \u201cHenry Huggins.\u201d<\/p>\n

The successful author went on to win a plethora of awards for her best-selling books. A few of the highlights from her winning streak were receiving the John Newbery Medal for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children and being granted the title \u2018Living Legend\u2019 by the Library of Congress in 2000.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe at HarperCollins also feel extremely lucky to have worked with Beverly Cleary and to have enjoyed her sparkling wit,\u201d HarperCollins President stated. \u201cHer timeless books are an affirmation of her everlasting connection to the pleasures, challenges, and triumphs that are part of every childhood\u201d.<\/p>\n

Cleary\u2019s husband, Clarence, passed away in 2004. Beverly and Clarence are survived by their two children, Malcolm and Marianne.<\/p>\n

Cleary said in an interview with National Public Radio in 2006 that she expected children would still read her books for years and years to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can curl up with a book, and I don\u2019t think anything takes the place of reading,\u201d Cleary said.<\/h3>\n

Her expectation became a tremendously successful reality. Beverly Cleary created stories that will live on in the hearts of so many people. That is an incredibly inspirational legacy to leave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cLooking back, she\u2019d often say, \u2018I\u2019ve had a lucky life,\u2019 and generations of children count themselves lucky to have the characters Beverly Cleary created.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":642,"featured_media":1176,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[221],"tags":[223,555,561,558],"class_list":["post-1173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-author","tag-author","tag-beverly-cleary","tag-childrens-author","tag-ramona-and-beezus"],"yoast_head":"\nCelebrating the Life and Legacy of Children's Author Beverly Cleary<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cLooking back, she\u2019d often say, \u2018I\u2019ve had a lucky life,\u2019 and generations of children count themselves lucky to have the characters Beverly Cleary created."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2021\/03\/celebrating-the-life-and-legacy-of-childrens-author-beverly-cleary.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Children's Author Beverly Cleary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cLooking back, she\u2019d often say, \u2018I\u2019ve had a lucky life,\u2019 and generations of children count themselves lucky to have the characters Beverly Cleary created."\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2021\/03\/celebrating-the-life-and-legacy-of-childrens-author-beverly-cleary.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Where Hope Lives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-29T17:53:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/399\/2021\/03\/beverly-cleary-memorial_beauty-img_credit-Public-Domain.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Breanna Fain\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Children's Author Beverly Cleary","description":"\u201cLooking back, she\u2019d often say, \u2018I\u2019ve had a lucky life,\u2019 and generations of children count themselves lucky to have the characters Beverly Cleary created.\"","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2021\/03\/celebrating-the-life-and-legacy-of-childrens-author-beverly-cleary.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Children's Author Beverly Cleary","og_description":"\u201cLooking back, she\u2019d often say, \u2018I\u2019ve had a lucky life,\u2019 and generations of children count themselves lucky to have the characters Beverly Cleary created.\"","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2021\/03\/celebrating-the-life-and-legacy-of-childrens-author-beverly-cleary.html","og_site_name":"Where Hope Lives","article_published_time":"2021-03-29T17:53:35+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":576,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/399\/2021\/03\/beverly-cleary-memorial_beauty-img_credit-Public-Domain.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Breanna Fain","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2021\/03\/celebrating-the-life-and-legacy-of-childrens-author-beverly-cleary.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2021\/03\/celebrating-the-life-and-legacy-of-childrens-author-beverly-cleary.html","name":"Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Children's Author Beverly Cleary","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2021\/03\/celebrating-the-life-and-legacy-of-childrens-author-beverly-cleary.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2021\/03\/celebrating-the-life-and-legacy-of-childrens-author-beverly-cleary.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/399\/2021\/03\/beverly-cleary-memorial_beauty-img_credit-Public-Domain.jpg","datePublished":"2021-03-29T17:53:35+00:00","dateModified":"2021-03-29T17:53:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/#\/schema\/person\/110185349d8cb012be67852dbdcb45a0"},"description":"\u201cLooking back, she\u2019d often say, \u2018I\u2019ve had a lucky life,\u2019 and generations of children count themselves lucky to have the characters Beverly Cleary created.\"","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2021\/03\/celebrating-the-life-and-legacy-of-childrens-author-beverly-cleary.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2021\/03\/celebrating-the-life-and-legacy-of-childrens-author-beverly-cleary.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2021\/03\/celebrating-the-life-and-legacy-of-childrens-author-beverly-cleary.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/399\/2021\/03\/beverly-cleary-memorial_beauty-img_credit-Public-Domain.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/399\/2021\/03\/beverly-cleary-memorial_beauty-img_credit-Public-Domain.jpg","width":768,"height":576,"caption":"Public Domain"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2021\/03\/celebrating-the-life-and-legacy-of-childrens-author-beverly-cleary.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Children’s Author Beverly Cleary"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/","name":"Where Hope Lives","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Tributes","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/#\/schema\/person\/110185349d8cb012be67852dbdcb45a0","name":"Breanna Fain","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/author\/bfain"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/642"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1173"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1185,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1173\/revisions\/1185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}