Brown, Marc (1946-…), an American author and illustrator of children’s books, created the character Arthur, an aardvark who acts like a person. An aardvark is an African animal with a long snout, big ears, and a long tail. Brown has written dozens of books about Arthur. He illustrates the books with water colors, pastels, and colored pencils. From 1996 to 2022, Arthur starred in a popular children’s television program called Arthur.
Arthur is 8 years old and a third-grade student who lives in the fictional town of Elwood City. The books describe Arthur’s adventures with his many animal friends, who all act like human beings. Brown introduced Arthur in Arthur’s Nose (1976). Arthur appears in three types of books—picture books, beginning readers, and chapter books for older children. Brown said he based the characters in the series on his experiences as a child in the third grade and on the experiences of his three children.
A key character in the series is Arthur’s sometimes annoying little sister Dora Winifred, called D. W. She became so popular with readers that Brown gave her a series of her own, beginning with D. W. Flips! (1987). In 2015, Brown began the “Monkey” series with Monkey Not Ready for Kindergarten. Monkey is a young monkey who, like Arthur and D. W., acts like a person and goes to school. Brown has also written and illustrated many books outside the Arthur and Monkey series, including several with his wife, Laurene Krasny Brown.
Marc Tolon Brown was born on Nov. 25, 1946, in Erie, Pennsylvania. He received a B.F.A. degree from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1969. That year, he started illustrating textbooks. Brown’s first assignment as a children’s book illustrator was What Makes the Sun Shine? (1971) by the American science writer Isaac Asimov. Brown taught at Garland Junior College in Boston from 1969 until 1976, when he became a full-time writer and illustrator.
