Beverly Cleary

Cleary as a senior at the University of California, Berkeley, 1938.

Beverly Atlee Bunn was born on April 12, 1916, in McMinnville, Oregon.[8] to Chester Lloyd Bunn (a farmer) and Mable Atlee Bunn (a schoolteacher).[9] Cleary was an only child[10] and lived on a farm in rural Yamhill, Oregon, in her early childhood.[11] She was raised Presbyterian.[12] When she was six years old, her family moved to Portland, Oregon,[9] where her father had secured a job as a bank security officer.[8]

The adjustment from living in the country to the city was troubling for Cleary, and she struggled in school; in first grade, her teacher placed her in a group for struggling readers.[9][13] Cleary said, "The first grade was separated 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."[14] With the help of a school librarian who introduced her to books she enjoyed,[15] Cleary caught up by third grade[10] and started to spend a lot of time reading and at the library.[9] By sixth grade, a teacher suggested that Cleary should become a children's writer based on essays she had written for class assignments.[13] Cleary graduated from Grant High School in Portland.[16]

After high school, Cleary entered Chaffey College in Alta Loma, California, with aspirations of becoming a children's librarian. After two years at Chaffey, she was accepted to the University of California at Berkeley, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1938.[14] She also met her future husband, Clarence Cleary, during her time at Berkeley.[17] While in college, Cleary worked odd jobs to pay her tuition, including working as a seamstress and a chambermaid.[18] In 1939, she graduated from the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Washington with a master's degree in library science[19] 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.[17][20] After World War II, they settled in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.[20][21]

After her graduation from the University of Washington in 1939, she served as a children's librarian in Yakima, Washington, and then as the post librarian at the U.S. Army Hospital in Oakland, California. In 1942, she began working as a full-time writer for children.[22]

As a children's librarian, Cleary empathized with her young patrons, who had difficulty finding books with characters they could identify with,[11] and she struggled to find enough books to suggest that would appeal to them.[10] After a few years of making recommendations and performing live storytelling in her role as librarian, Cleary decided to start writing children's books about characters that young readers could relate to.[23] 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."[15][19]

Cleary's first book, Henry Huggins (1950), was accepted for immediate publication and was the first in a series of fictional chapter books about Henry, his dog Ribsy, his neighborhood friend Beezus and her little sister Ramona.[13] 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.[11][15]

Cleary's first book to center a story on the Quimby sisters, Beezus and Ramona, was published in 1955.[24] 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.[25] She has written two memoirs, A Girl from Yamhill (1988) and My Own Two Feet (1995).[26] During a 2011 interview for the Los Angeles Times, at age 95, Cleary stated, "I've had an exceptionally happy career."[13]

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.[5] 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."[10] Cleary's employment of humor has also been noted by critics; Roger Sutton of The Horn Book Magazine notes: "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."[10]

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."[27] Eliza Dresang, professor in children and youth services at the University of Washington Information School said, "Those books don't seem so radical now, but they were when she was writing them." Dresang also said the topics covered were portrayed with honesty and accuracy.[28] 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."[29]^:210

In 1955, Cleary gave birth to twins, Malcolm and Marianne. Cleary has lived in Carmel Valley, California, since before her husband's death in 2004; as of 2016, she lives in a retirement home there.[30][31]

Cleary celebrated her 100th birthday on April 12, 2016,[32] an event that was noted in several news sources.[18][33][34][35] Cleary's birthday is now celebrated nation wide as D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything and Read) Day, with activities related to the Drop Everything and Read program.[36]

Statue of Ramona Quimby in Grant Park, Portland.

In 1975, Cleary won the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award from the American Library Association for "substantial and lasting contributions to children's literature".[37] She was U.S. nominee for the biennial international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1984.[38] 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.[39] She received the National Medal of Arts in 2003.[40]

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).[41]

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.[42]

Publisher HarperCollins recognizes her birthday, April 12, as National Drop Everything and Read Day (DEAR), in promotion of sustained silent reading.[43]

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.[44] 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.[44]

In 1997 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 June 2008, the neighborhood's K-8 school, formerly Fernwood Grammar School and once attended by Cleary, was officially renamed Beverly Cleary School.[45]

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.[19] In 2008, the school announced that she had been selected as the next recipient of the university's Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus Award, the highest honor the University of Washington can bestow on a graduate.[46][47]

Cleary has a 220-student residential hall at her alma mater, the University of California, Berkeley, named after her, called Beverly Cleary Hall.[48]

Cleary has been mentioned as a major influence by other authors, including Laurie Halse Anderson, Judy Blume, Lauren Myracle, and Jon Scieszka.[49]

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.[50] It was broadcast around her birthday on PBS stations across the country, and the program has received more than 1 million online views.

† Henry Huggins series (1950–1964)
‡ Ramona series (1955–1999)[65]

• Ramona (1988): 10-part Canadian TV series starred Sarah Polley as 8-year-old Ramona Quimby.[66]
• Ramona and Beezus (2010): Movie starring Joey King as Ramona and Selena Gomez as Beezus.

Explanatory notes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Beverly Cleary.

• Official website

Biography and interviews

• Beverly Cleary at The Oregon Encyclopedia
• "Beverly Cleary, Age 90" (2006 interview) at Newsweek
• "Beverly Cleary, Getting the Best Out of Her 'Pest'" (2006 interview) at NPR
• "Discovering Beverly Cleary: An Oregon Art Beat special" (2012 TV special) on PBS

Cultural and historical

• Grant Park statues at Multnomah County Library
• "Beverly Cleary: The Girl from Yamhill" (2009 profile) at Central Rappahannock Regional Library
• "Kids Like Us" (2008 profile) in the University of Washington alumni magazine, based on interview
• Maurer, Elizabeth (2016), Honoring Beverly Cleary, National Women's History Museum

Research resources

• Works by or about Beverly Cleary in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Beverly Cleary at Library of Congress Authorities, with 100 catalog records
• Discovering Beverly Cleary Page and documentary produced by Oregon Art Beat