Author of Little Bear Books Else Holmelund Minarik dies at 91

Else Holmelund Minarik, a writer of children the Little Bear series of picture-book, simply, gently and suggestively tells the story of a puppy antropomorfitzat forays into the world has been a pillar of childhood for more than half century, died Thursday at his home in Sunset Beach, North Carolina for 91 years.

The death was announced HarperCollins Publishers, its editor for a long time.

The first of many books Mrs. Minarik (pronounced MIN-uh-rick), "Little Bear" appeared in 1957 as the inaugural title can not read! series. Aimed at beginner readers, the series that now includes hundreds of books by various authors, was originally published by Harper & Row, a predecessor to HarperCollins.

In 1997, The New York Times Book Review called "Little Bear", one of the best children's books of the previous half century. This title and its sequel - "Father Bear Comes Home" (1959), "Little Bear Friend" (1960), "Visit Little Bear" (1961) and "A Kiss for Little Bear" (1968) - have sold millions of copies and became the basis for an animated television series, first broadcast on Nickelodeon in 1995.

Critics have praised the book to support not only for Ms. Minarik's prose, combined with the accessibility of heat suggestive crystalline, but also for your offer, inflections Victorian illustration of a young artist named Maurice Sendak. Mr. Sendak died in May, at 83.

Else Holmelund was born September 13, 1920, in Denmark, where he started, he said later in a diet that satisfies the soul of Hans Christian Andersen. At 4, he moved with his family to America, settling in New York.

After studying psychology and art at Queens College, worked as a reporter for the Daily Sentinel in Rome, New York, before becoming a teacher first grade in Commack, Long Island.

Casting for the securities of which students can read on their own, Mrs. Minarik quickly ran up against the wall lead to Dick and Jane, some of these games available for the youngest readers. They decided to write his book, and the result was "Little Bear".

The outstanding children's books editor, Ursula Nordstrom, the stability of which includes such luminaries as Margaret Wise Brown and EB White, has acquired the manuscript to Mrs. Minarik Harper & Row.

Ms. Minarik illustrated books include others "no fighting, no biting!" (1958), illustrated by Mr. Sendak, "The Little Girl Giant and Elf Boy" (1963), illustrated by Garth Williams, and "Percy and the Five Houses" (1989), illustrated by James Stevenson .

The first husband of Mrs. Minarik, Walter Minarik, died in 1960, his second, Homer Bigart, twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the New York Herald Tribune correspondent, then a reporter for The New York Times, died in 1991. His only son, a daughter, Brooke, from his first marriage, before she died. Survivors are a sister, Anne Lester, and a granddaughter.