Marion Holland | |
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Born | Washington, D.C., United States | July 17, 1908
Died | April 8, 1989 | (aged 80)
Marion Holland (July 17, 1908 – April 6, 1989) was an American children's book writer and illustrator from Washington, D.C. Her best-known books were A Big Ball of String; No Children, No Pets; Billy Had a System; and The Secret Horse. A Big Ball of String (1958), which sold more than a million copies, was one of the six original Beginner Books published by Random House, along with The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss. [1]
Born on July 17, 1908, in Washington, D.C., Holland graduated from Central High School and Swarthmore College. She had five children. Her first marriage, to Evaristo Murray, ended in divorce. [2] They had a daughter, Barbara Holland, who also became a writer. Holland had four children with her second husband, Thomas W. Holland: Nicholas Holland, Judith Clarke, Rebecca Snyder, and Andrew Holland. [3]
Holland illustrated most of her books, often using her children as models. Her reminiscences about growing up in the Washington area were published in The Washington Post [4] and The Washington Star, and she often corresponded with Post columnist William Raspberry. [5] "It was uncanny how often Marion Holland's letters seemed to come precisely when I was stuck for a column idea," Raspberry wrote. "It was in her letters that her trenchant wit and sardonic wisdom came to the fore." [6]
Holland died of cancer on April 6, 1989, in Washington, D.C. [7]