Clement Hurd

Clement Hurd studied at Yale University and St. Paul's School. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is illustration. Fernand Léger is recorded as an influence. Works named in the authority record are Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny.

• Name — Clement Hurd • Birth Name — Clement Gazzam Hurd • Born — 12 January 1908 • Birthplace — New York City, U.S. • Died — 5 February 1988 • Place of death — San Francisco, California, U.S. • Field — Illustration, Painting • Training — St. Paul's School Fernand Léger • Education — Yale University • Father — Richard Melancthon Hurd • Spouse — Edith Thacher Hurd • Children — John Thacher Hurd • Notable Works — Runaway Bunny series

Hurd was born in New York City, the son of Richard Melancthon Hurd, an economist and mortgage banker, and his wife Lucy Gazzam Hurd. He was educated at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, then studied architecture at Yale University and painting with Fernand Léger in Paris.

Hurd returned to New York in 1933 to work as a commercial artist. There, Margaret Wise Brown was an editor at W. R. Scott, as well as a writer of picture book texts. On seeing two of his paintings, she asked him if he would consider illustrating children's books. She wrote a text herself, for what became Bumble Bugs and Elephants (1938) —"perhaps the first modern board book for babies." Hurd's next collaboration with Brown, The Runaway Bunny, has been in print continuously since its 1942 publication. Their next book, Goodnight Moon (1947), is considered classic children's literature in North America; by 1990, the total number of copies sold was more than four million. In 2007, the National Education Association listed Goodnight Moon as one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children". In 2012 it was ranked number four among the "Top 100 Picture Books" in a survey published by School Library Journal. Hurd also illustrated over fifty books written by his wife, Edith Thacher Hurd (a friend of Brown's), as well as a children's book written by Gertrude Stein, The World Is Round. Hurd wrote and illustrated the book Run, Run, Run. Hurd died of Alzheimer's disease at a San Francisco hospital in 1988.

His son, Thacher Hurd, is also a children's book author and illustrator, and referred in an interview to the "wonderful aura of creativity" surrounding his father and the Vermont farm that was their home.

• The World Is Round (New York: W. R. Scott, 1939), words by Gertrude Stein, • The Merry Chase (Random House, 1941) • The Race Between the Monkey and the Duck (Wonder Books, 1946) • Run Run Run: Story of Black Cat and Dog (Harper, 1951), • Margaret Wise Brown • Bumble Bugs and Elephants (W. R. Scott, 1938) • The Runaway Bunny (Harper, 1942) • Goodnight Moon (Harper, 1947) • My World (Harper, 1949), Brown – a Goodnight Moon book • Good-night Moon Room (Harper, 1984) — pop-up book version • Goodnight Moon's 123: A Counting Book (HarperCollins, 2007) • Goodnight Moon's ABC: An Alphabet Book (HarperCollins, 2010) • Edith Thacher Hurd • Benny the Bulldozer (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1947) • Little Brass Band (Harper, 1955) • Windy and the Willow Whistle (Sterling, 1956) • Mr. Charlie, the Fireman's Friend (Lippincott, 1958) • Last One Home is a Green Pig (Harper, 1959) • Hurry Hurry (Harper, 1960) • Come and Have Fun (Harper, 1962) • Christmas Eve (Harper, 1962) • No Funny Business (Harper, 1962) • The Day the Sun Danced (Harper, 1965) • Johnny Lion's Book (Harper, 1965) • What Whale? Where? (Harper, 1966) • The Blue Heron Tree (Viking, 1968) • This is the Forest (Coward-McCann, 1969) • Catfish (Viking, 1970) • Johnny Lion's Bad Day (Harper, 1970) • Wilson's World (Harper, 1971) • Johnny Lion's Rubber Boots (Harper, 1972) • The Mother Owl (Little, Brown, 1974) • The Mother Kangaroo (Little, Brown, 1976) • Look for a Bird (Harper, 1977) • The Mother Chimpanzee (Little, Brown, 1978) • Under the Lemon Tree (Little, Brown, 1980)

Clement Hurd is recorded as illustrator.