Marc Tolon Brown (born November 25, 1946) is an American illustrator and children's book author best known for writing and illustrating the Arthur book series, which was later adapted into an animated TV series that aired on PBS Kids.
Marc Brown was raised in Erie, Pennsylvania, where his father worked on the railroad.[1] He grew up with three younger sisters. As a child, Brown had a close relationship with his Grandma Thora who passionately encouraged him to pursue art from a young age, and captivated him with made-up stories stories (including scary tales told without her false teeth).[2][3]
Many people in Brown's childhood, including Grandma Thora, were direct inspirations for characters he later wrote in the Arthur series. The character Mr. Ratburn is based on Brown's seventh grade algebra teacher, Gary Rathbun, and his own best friend, Terry Johnson, was the basis for Buster.[4][5]
While attending McDowell High School, Brown's began using watercolors at the suggestion of his art teacher, Nancy Bryan, who supported his future as an artist. In Brown's 2022 inspirational book which compiles quotes and life lessons from the Arthur books and TV series called Believe in Yourself: What We Learned from Arthur, he wrote that "one day she told me to get my portfolio and drove me to the Cleveland Institute of Art for an interview. I left that day with an invitation to return in the fall on a full scholarship."[6]
Brown graduated from Cleveland Institute of Art in 1968 with a degree in graphic design.[7] In 1970, Brown illustrated his first book, What Makes the Sun Shine by Isaac Asimov.[8]
Before Brown pursued children's literature, he attempted a variety of jobs.[9] He did not succeed as a truck driver due to poor sense of direction, and he lost his next job in the television industry. He got a job teaching art at Garland Junior College in Boston, but the college went bankrupt after semester, leaving Brown unemployed. Meanwhile, his wife moved out of the house due to marital issues, eventually resulting in divorce.[10][11]
"I was literally rescued by Arthur." – Marc Brown, in the opening line of Believe in Yourself: What We Learned from Arthur
Around this time, Brown's 4-year-old son Tolon asked for a bedtime story about a weird animal, and Brown came up with the character of Arthur, an anthropomorphized aardvark.[12][13] "I was kind of depressed. I didn’t know what I was going to do to put food on the table", Brown later said.[13] In 1976, Brown published his first picture book, Arthur's Nose with Little, Brown. It was not immediately successful, but he continued to write and illustrate stories about the same characters, and popularity grew over several years until the series was well-known.
On October 7, 1996, an animated television series based on the Arthur books premiered on PBS Kids (then-known as PTV before its was rebranded in September 1999), produced by WGBH and CINAR Films of Montreal. The show surpassed Barney & Friends as PBS's top children's programming for three years (1997, 2000, 2001). Brown was an executive producer on the show for seasons ten through twenty-five, and is a three-time Emmy award winner. Aiming for an audience aged between four and eight years old, the show ran for nearly 25 years, officially ending on February 21, 2022.[14] "I knew it couldn’t go on forever and ever. And 25 years seemed like a nice number", Brown said in an interview with Variety.
Inspiration and reception
Brown sees himself in all the characters, but especially Arthur. "I guess Arthur is most like me. Sometimes I really frighten myself when I look at a photo that was taken of me in the third grade. I’m wearing a bow tie just like Arthur."[5] Brown credits artists like Marc Chagall and Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are, as influences.
In a 2001 interview, Brown said he received about 100,000 letters a year from fans of Arthur, and he said that if children call his home and ask for Arthur, his wife replied that Arthur was "at the library".[5]
Personal life
Brown married Stephanie Marini, a ballet dancer and college teacher, on September 1, 1968. They had two sons, Tolon and Tucker, before the marriage ended in divorce in 1977. On September 11, 1983, Brown married his second wife, Laurene Krasny, a writer and a psychologist at Harvard University. They had a daughter, Eliza.[15] The names of Brown's children are hidden in the Arthur books' illustrations.
Brown said in a 2003 interview, "I like to rise early, watch the sun rise over Hingham Harbor, and work". He worked at night sometimes, too, and typically focused on multiple projects at one time.[8] He currently lives in Hingham, Massachusetts.
↑ Brown, Marc (2022). Believe in Yourself: what we learned from Arthur. New York, NY: Little, Brown, and Company. p.123. I certainly wouldn't be doing what I'm now doing if it wasn't for Nancy Bryan, my high school art teacher.. One day she told me to get my portfolio and drove me to the Cleveland Institute of Art for an interview. I left that day with an invitation to return in the fall on a full scholarship.
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