December 17, 2014

"A jar of red paint happened to be situated on his desk on the day he first drew a picture of a little girl and a big dog."

"He wanted to name the dog Tiny, though his wife, Norma, discouraged the obvious joke and named him Clifford, after an imaginary friend from her childhood. The little girl who owned him, Emily Elizabeth, was named for their infant daughter."

From the NYT obituary for Norman Bridwell.

5 comments:

George M. Spencer said...

Clearly a Communist sympathizer.

Tank said...

Kids LOVE that doggy. When B & N has character days (a person dressed up as Clifford during storytime), he is mucho popular.

Renee said...

In the PBS series I thought they lived on Birdwell Island, but it's Bridwell for the author. As you can tell we didn't read his books.

Marc in Eugene said...

Only know the name Clifford, but the post and its tags made me think of Anne Carson's Autobiography of Red. Redness, a dog, a book....

CatherineM said...

Aw! I loved that book. Emily picks the runt, the smallest puppy no one wants and he grows to be as big as a house and her best friend.

That book and Curious George goes to the hospital were my favorite books when I was little. My parents would try to skip a page, they were so tired of it (and probably tired) but I would catch them and make them go back.