Beverly Cleary's 'Forbidden' Private Life Comes Out Shortly After Her Passing

"Beverly Cleary was funny in a very sophisticated way, she got very close to satire." literary critic Roger Sutton wrote for The Horn Book Magazine. Of course, those who knew the almost 105-year-old Beverly Clearly were never surprised to see this tone creep into her writing: she spent her entire childhood proving she knew what was best for herself. She engaged in several heated disputes throughout her life that her publicists worked hard to keep private until now.

For The Children

Throughout her time as a librarian in Yakima, Washington, Beverly enjoyed introducing children to new books. She knew it was her responsibility to make sure kids could get their hands on stories that inspired their imaginations, but not every child was happy with her recommendations; in fact, one kid complained to her face — and changed her life.

Disappointing Reads

This kid wasn't like most Beverly saw poking around the library: he was angry. He approached her and very rudely, according to the story, asked her "Where are the books about kids like us?" Us, in this context, meant young, lower-class kids living through the Great Depression. The question caught Beverly off guard.

Different Perspective

Because most children's books at that time were originally from England, they usually featured families lower-class Americans couldn't relate to: well-to-do kids in big mansions with nannies and butlers. It was a different way of life, which made it hard for many children to be fully invested in these books. Beverly sought to change that.

Inside the Mind

As the professor of children's lit at West Chester University, Pat Pflieger said of Cleary's future catalog, which included hits like the Ramona Quimby series: "Cleary's books have lasted because she understands her audience. She knows they're sometimes confused or frightened by the world around them, and that they feel deeply about things that adults can dismiss." She did this by drawing from her own life.

Nothing To Read

In spite of her ways with words, Beverly Cleary, born as Beverly Bunn, did not grow up with the most prestigious education. There wasn't even a local library in the area until her mother stepped up and made the change. This was back when her family lived on a farm in Yamhill, Oregon.

First Library

Beverly's mother, Mable Atlee Bunn, arranged with the State Library to have books sent to Yamhill and became an unofficial librarian in a lodge room upstairs over a bank. This is where Beverly was introduced to books, but her life as a reader, and a learner, would not be smooth sailing.

Early Struggle

The family moved to Portland, Oregon around the time Beverly was old enough to attend grammar school. The little girl with an interest in books started to attend, but unfortunately, she found that her reading skills were far behind her fellow classmates. "The first grade was separated into three reading groups—Bluebirds, Redbirds, and Blackbirds," she recalled. "I was a Blackbird."

Catching Up

Beverly's struggle didn't stop her from wanting to learn, rather it led her to sympathize with those who struggled with reading. By the 3rd grade, Beverly overcame her struggle and was rarely ever seen without a book in hand. Soon she recognized another issue that would change the course of her life.

Growing Inspiration

As a young child, Beverly spent a great deal of time in the library and became close to the librarian that worked there. This librarian wanted to encourage Beverly's passion for books, so she suggested she write her own books when she grew up. This wouldn't be the last time the idea came up.

Pouring Out Of Her

In high school, Beverly's writing was praised, and she was told how talented she was. She poured her time into various forms of writing, including journalism, but she didn't have support from everyone she knew, and a turning tide in the country would add pressure to the aspiring writer.

Downturn Events

As America suffered from the Great Depression, an additional stress was put on Cleary, who still tore through books every chance she got. While she wasn't ready to make a career out of reading or writing, it was still a very active part of her life as her parents fought to put food on the table.

Grim Times

Beverly's parents did everything they could to survive. Her father, Chester Lloyd Bunn, was unemployed, and it was painful seeing how many men were coming around the house looking for help themselves. Beverly took in everything around her, hoping to follow her dreams — but then her mother spoke up.

Ideal Child

Mable had her own idea of how she wanted Beverly to grow up. Although she encouraged Beverly to read, she wasn't in full support of her making a career out of it. Writing, her mother said, didn't pay the bills when the entire country was in an unprecedented economic dip. The conversation didn't even change when Beverly received an interesting offer.

Mother Knows Best

When Mable's cousin, a librarian at Chaffey Junior College in Ontario, California, offered Beverly the chance to stay with her while attending the school, Mable disapproved. It wasn't about the money, as the college was free for California residents; Mable just wanted what she thought was best for her daughter.

Different Opinions

But then Chester joined the conversation. Although Beverly's mother disapproved of her daughter leaving home, Beverly's father urged her to leave for California. The budding writer took the opportunity to pursue her dreams out to the Golden State, but it wouldn't be the last time her mother tried intervening in her life.

One Step At A Time

At Chaffey Junior College, Beverly impressed even the most critical professors with her writing. After two years, she decided to take another leap, opting to leave behind the junior college for something more prestigious: the University of California, Berkeley. She wasn't sure she'd get in, but it was a necessary step for her career.

For The Future

Because her end goal was to become a librarian and write children's books, Beverly knew a lot of work was ahead of her. Becoming a librarian, after all, required a college degree. So, when she was finally accepted to the university, she was one step closer to her goal — and the man of her dreams.

Falling Into Place

College opened her up to new ideas in English, education, and science, as well as new languages. It also introduced her to Clarence Cleary, a history student at the university. They dated and fell in love while Beverly sought her degree. Everything seemed perfect, but then Mable and Chester got involved.

Fight For Love

Clarence was a Roman Catholic; Beverly was a Protestant. For that reason, the couple, both Mable and Chester insisted, couldn't be together — it was a conflict of faith. Mable couldn't help but remind her daughter how she'd warned against going to California to begin with, and she, along with Chester, encouraged their daughter to find a new man.

Romantic Story

Except, like the kids she'd eventually write about, Beverly had her own rebellious streak. She ignored her parents' demands, and she and Clarence eloped in 1940. From Clarence, she took the renowned surname Cleary, but not everything changed. She remained Protestant, and he remained Catholic. The only thing important to them was that they would be together.

Almost At The Beginning

Over the years Beverly earned herself a bachelor's from the University of California, and then a degree in librarianship from the University of Washington in Seattle. She wouldn't write her first book until after she and her husband were settled into their careers, and she was inspired by that angry boy to write something for kids like him — which was really just a mirror of Beverly herself.

Looking Inward

Her "books don't seem so radical now, but they were when she was writing them," said Eliza Dresang, a children's lit professor at the University of Washington. Children making their own way through the world while on equal footing with adults was revolutionary. But, as Beverly put it: "Kids deserve books of literary quality."

Following The Path

Throughout Beverly Cleary's life and career, she approached things in a different way than most other people would at the time. She followed her own path in spite of her parents' occasional disapproval and was inspired by the struggles of others to make a change. For all her contributions, she was recognized with several awards, including the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal from the Association for Library Service to Children.

No Thanks

Named after a bonafide pioneer woman, Laura Ingalls Wilder, who wrote the Little House on the Prairie series of children's books, which holds a special place in the hearts of many American families, the medal was highly sought after in the world of children's literature. Beverly wasn't so sure of the honor.

Children's Literature Legacy Award

In 2018, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award underwent a name change to the Children's Literature Legacy Award after the association of librarians who created the honor decided to remove Wilder's name. Their reasoning reveals something deeply sinister about the author.

The Ingalls

The Ingalls family moved around quite a bit. By the time she was fifteen, Laura had already lived in five different states. She had also already experienced quite a bit of tragedy for someone so young.

Early Tragedies

Laura's older sister Mary contracted scarlet fever and went blind. After this, Laura had to care for her. In addition, the girls had a younger brother, Charles, who died in infancy. It seemed the Ingalls family was marked for tragedy.

Teaching Time

Laura received her first teaching job at 15, around the same time she met Almanzo Wilder. Although he was ten years older, Ingalls was enamored. They wed three years later, looking to a future they couldn't know would be mired in catastrophe.

Here Come the Kids

Almanzo and Laura (or Beth, as he called her — he had a sister named Laura), had their first child, Rose, in 1886. Rose would grow up to play a controversial role in her mother's life. However their second child was a different story.

No Breaks

Rose's little brother was doomed to suffer a fate similar to Charles'. After living for only 12 short days, the yet-to-be-named baby passed away. Soon, Almanzo would experience some devastating health problems of his own.

Diptheria

After a particularly debhilitating bout of diptheria, Almanzo was left partially paralyzed and unable to farm for the family's livelihood. As if their string of bad luck wasn't long enough, shortly after this, their daughter Rose made a mistake that changed the family's lives forever.

Burning Down the House

Left alone in the kitchen at only three years old, Rose attempted to help her mother by adding firewood to the stove. Tragically, this would set a fire that nearly killed the girl and her mother, and ultimately burned their house to the ground.

Cosmopolitan

In a 1926 Cosmopolitan article, Rose revealed she still struggled with guilt over the incident. Additionally, she confessed that her childhood felt like a nightmare; she had to endure extreme poverty and malnutrition. Despite this, she remained close with her mother — some say a little too close.

Controversies and Stripped Awards

Rose Wilder was a writer, just like mom. In fact, she actually gained commercial success before Laura's famous Little House series ever saw the light of day. Artistic collaboration between the mother-daughter pair has led to quite a bit of controversy.

Literary Circles

See, it is suspected in some literary circles that Rose was actually the ghostwriter behind the books that made her mother famous. And although Ingall's artistic legacy persists today, recently some dark allegations have come to light.

Not a Sight for Modern Eyes

The reason for changing her award's name was because Wilder's books have been criticized in the modern day for their racist content. The writer has been accused of saying dehumanizing and downright vitriolic things about both Black people and Native Americans.

"No People"

An opening line to one of the chapters in Little House on The Big Prairie is particularly unsettling. It describes an area where there were "no people. Only Indians." This dehumanization encompasses in a nutshell some of the more problematic aspects of Ingall's work.

It Gets Worse

Another phrase that caused the committee in charge of the award to change its name was the obviously racist line, "The only good Indian is a dead Indian." Some critics argue that Wilder was merely a product of her time, but the librarians decided they needed to cut ties.

Despite well-founded allegations of racism, Wilder's legacy has remained a huge influence on American children ever since its first publication in 1935. It even led to a TV series of the same name — a show that was also not without mishap and controversy.

Alison Arngrim, the actress who played the show's antagonist Nellie, was put through a great deal of physical trauma. Extremely high temperatures on set once caused her to faint from exhaustion, and her signature blond wig was so tight that it made her scalp bleed.

In one iconic episode, Arngrim's character was sent throttling down a hill while confined to a wheelchair. The actress's screams were so convincing because they were real! Seconds before filming, a crew member yelled that the rope securing her chair had broken, causing Arngrim to cry out in fear.

Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura herself, was also subjected to some less than appropriate circumstances. In one episode she shared an onscreen smooch with her costar, Dean Butler. The messed up part? He was 23, and she was only 15. It was the actress's first kiss.

Michael Landon did more than play Pa Ingalls. He was also an executive producer, writer, and director for the series. When actress Karen Grassle auditioned for the role of Ma under her stage name, Gabriel Tree, Landon requested she drop it and use her real name.

All the hearty meals that Ma worked tirelessly over in the scenes were actually one food: Dinty Moore beef stew. The one exception? In an episode where Ma fried chicken, they used KFC.

Before Draco Malfoy and Joffrey there was the original blonde spoiled brat: Nellie Oleson. Serious credit must be paid to child actors Melissa Gilbert and Alison Arngrim for their convincing animosity, particularly since they were real life BFFs!

It's hard to separate her from her perfect portrayal of Nellie, but before she embodied the utterly nasty character, she auditioned for both Laura and Mary Ingalls. Luckily for the fans, she was rejected.

By the time Michael Landon landed in Charles 'Pa' Ingall's boots, he was already famous thanks to the hit show Bonanza. So when Little House began, he got to call the shots. Michael envisioned Charles with a certain swagger, which included 4-inch lifts in his boots so he was the tallest on set...

He also wasn't shy about Pa flashing some skin. Michael reportedly enjoyed filming shirtless scenes to show off his physique. On occasion, he was even known to skip wearing undergarments with his costumes.

Before the Olsen Twins, there was another adorable identical TV duo: Rachel and Sidney Bush. Together, the twins shared the part of Carrie Ingalls. California labor laws required the director to rotate between the three-year-old girls every few hours.

Working with kids led to countless hilarious unintentional mistakes captured on film. During the opening credits, Carrie Ingalls trips while running down a hill. That was a real tumble! The director thought it was cute, and chose to keep in.

Melissa was a natural fit for the tough, can-do character, Laura "Half-Pint" Ingalls: In the storyline when Laura learns to drive a stagecoach, Melissa actually trained to do so in real life. She jumped on the opportunity to experience the authentic pioneer lifestyle.

The cast and crew were known to partake in a bit of drinking, and crushed over two cases of Coors most days on set. Sometimes Wild Turkey was in the mix. All the debauchery took place during the child actors' nap times.

The show was actually filmed in Simi Valley, California: Big Sky Ranch served as the set for most of the series, and unbeknownst to the crew, it was also a former disposal site for radioactive materials. Some blame the radioactivity for high cancer rates amongst the production team.

Melissa Sue Anderson, who played Mary Ingalls, didn't bond with the rest of the cast. Her mother kept a protective watch over her, which alienated her from the group. Even though Laura and Mary were close-knit sisters onscreen, Melissa Gilbert said her costar was conceited.

The closeness between Laura and Pa was real: Michael was a father figure to Melissa. Her own father died when she was just 11, so she spent many weekends at the Landon house and adored his wife and children.

That bond didn't last: Michael had an affair with a makeup artist on set, which resulted in a divorce from his wife Cheryl. Melissa took her side and stopped associating with the actor off the set.

The fireworks were real: In the series finale, the townspeople of Walnut Grove enact some revenge on the land-grabbers taking the city for their own when they rig dynamite and blow all the buildings to smithereens. Well, those explosions were real! They used footage of the actual sets being demolished.

Michael starred in the smash hit Bonanza right before beginning the Little House series: He carried over a lot from his previous show — including the scripts. Bonanza’s "A Matter of Circumstance" episode was repurposed and made into "A Matter of Faith" on Little House.

1. But Michael Landon had several scripts rejected for the iconic show, which ran from 1959 to 1973. He was used to that frustration, however. Conflicts and controversies backstage on Bonanza had the entire production team pulling their hair out.

2. Producers had to strike a delicate balance between actors' egos. Unlike most shows that put one big-name star above the rest, Bonanza treated all its main cast members as equals. It even rotated their names in the credits so that no single actor would get top billing.

3. Actor Pernell Roberts got fed up with the show, as he thought they played it too safe. After the sixth season, when Adam Cartwright left for good, Pernell struggled to find work. In 1979, however, he landed the titular role in Trapper John, M.D.

4. Wild west gunslingers carry revolvers, not phasers, but that didn't stop most of the Star Trek cast from appearing on Bonanza. They didn't stop by the Western for charity, either. Surprisingly, guest stars usually received higher pay than the main cast.

5. Fan favorite Dan Blocker died unexpectedly toward the end of the show's run. Few other programs ever dealt with the death of a lead actor, but Bonanza took it in stride. They rewrote their scripts to include Dan's character Hoss also passing away offscreen.

6. Bonanza almost didn't last. Early on, Perry Mason routinely trounced it in that time slot. As the first network Western filmed in color, however, it got a huge boost when viewers started buying color TVs and turning away from old shows in black and white.

7. Women in the Cartwright family tended not to fare too well. Most love interests met an untimely end or left town, including all three of Ben Cartwright's wives. Writers made this choice because movie cowboys usually remained unmarried.

8. Believe it or not, producers conceived the catchy Bonanza theme song before they even figured out the show's plot or cast! A non-instrumental version became a big hit in the 1960s. Various artists covered it, including the Man in Black himself: Johnny Cash.

9. In 1963, Dan Blocker capitalized on the show's popularity and opened a restaurant. Bonanza Steakhouses — later renamed Ponderosa Steakhouses — began to pop up all over the country. Dozens of locations still operate around the U.S. — and the Middle East!

10. In the early 1970s, M*A*S*H producers were considering Dan Blocker for a lead role. It never came to pass, but he would have been perfect based on his real-life experience! Dan actually saw action in the Korean War and received a Purple Heart for his service.

11. Bonanza tackled quite a few social issues from a progressive standpoint, but they still leaned on stereotypes for the Cartwright's Chinese cook Hop Sing. On top of that, NBC did not pay actor Victor Sen Yung much, so he had to release a series of Hop Sing cookbooks to make ends meet.

12. Ben Cartwright is one of the top TV dads of all time, and yet actor Lorne Greene wasn't even old enough to have three grown sons! He was only 44 at the start of the show — just 13 years older than the man playing his eldest son, Pernell Roberts.

13. Dan Blocker was as big in real life as on the small screen as Hoss Cartwright. At 14 pounds, he broke records as the largest baby ever born in Bowie County, Texas. Dan also reached a height of six feet by the time he was 12 years old!

14. While all of Bonanza's cast members dabbled in music, Lorne Greene scored a number one hit! His spoken-word ballad "Ringo" topped the charts in 1964, though some confused record buyers thought it had something to do with Beatles drummer Ringo Starr. In reality, the song was about an outlaw.

15. The young Michael Landon was cast for his good looks, though he didn't exactly have the stature of a rugged rancher. His cowboy boots had four-inch lifts built in so his larger co-stars wouldn't dwarf him.

16. Aside from Hop Sing, the show's most beloved recurring character might just be Sheriff Roy Coffee. The Virginia City lawman appeared in 98 episodes and often lent the Cartwrights a hand in sticky situations.

17. Historically speaking, a big inspiration for the Ponderosa Ranch was the Comstock Lode. This huge vein of silver brought about an explosion of commerce and settlement in Nevada in the 1860s. Also, the word bonanza comes from a Spanish term for a discovery of rich minerals.

18. Creator David Dortort's idea for the show also borrowed quite a bit from the legend of King Arthur. He saw patriarch Ben Cartwright as a Western version of Arthur, and his sons as the loyal Knights of the Round Table.

19. The character Candy Canary was popular with fans but mysteriously vanished from the show after 1970, only to reappear years later for the show's final season. What happened? Actor David Canary was holding out for a higher salary and wouldn't work until producers gave in.

20. With the exception of Michael Landon, all of the show's stars wore hairpieces at some point in the series. Lorne Greene's toupee even fell off during one scene where he had to dive into a lake. He put it back on underwater before any of the crew would notice.

Bonanza dominated Western-genre television, as it ran for 431 episodes over 15 years. Still another beloved Western ran five years longer and put out 635 episodes — and that show had some drama of its own!

1. James Arness was badly wounded in his legs and feet during WWII. As a result, his lower extremities got extremely painful in the later half of the day, so Gunsmoke always made sure to film his more physical scenes in the morning.

2. A number of Gunsmoke performers didn't really pop after they left the show, but that wasn't the case for the young man who played sidekick Quint Asper. The incomparable Burt Reynolds went on to become the top-grossing film actor for five straight years.

3. Unlike most leading man characters, Matt Dillon didn't find a whole lot of romance. Across the 20 seasons of Gunsmoke, he only kissed one woman. That honor went to actress Michael Learned, best known from The Waltons.

4. Despite a rough first audition, Dennis Weaver was the first actor cast for the TV adaptation. To set Chester Goode apart from the other characters, he adopted a Southern accent and a severe limp.

5. The towering Glenn Strange played Sam the bartender until his death in 1973. That was his final onscreen role, though he was most famous for portraying Frankenstein's monster in three Universal monster films.

6. The Western epic hosted so many guest stars over the years that an urban legend spread about Albert Einstein making a surprise appearance. That wasn't true, but future A-listers Kurt Russell, Jodie Foster, and Harrison Ford all showed up.

7. For most of Gunsmoke's run, the credits opened with Matt Dillon gunning down an unnamed assailant. As violence became more of an issue in the 1970s, producers replaced the scene with a shot of Matt riding his horse.

8. In 1974, CBS launched a comedy-drama spinoff called Dirty Sally. The series, which starred Jeanette Nolan as an old woman panning for gold in California, only lasted for a season before the network pulled the plug.

9. Gunsmoke reached the brink of cancellation in 1967, but CBS president William Paley refused to let that happen. He instead moved the program from Saturdays to Mondays, which ended up booting Gilligan's Island, formerly in that timeslot, off the air for good.

10. James Arness appeared in every installment, but Milburn Stone came close to matching that feat. He missed out on six episodes in 1971 after suffering a heart attack. A substitute doctor filled in, and then disappeared once Milburn returned.

11. Buck Taylor's career highlight was playing Newly O'Brien in the second half of the show's run. He since made a transition to art, and much of his work focuses on Western figures — including a portrait of his co-star James Arness.

12. Over two dozen actors were in the mix for the part of Matt Dillon. John Pickard and Denver Pile read for it. Raymond Burr — later of Perry Mason fame — had an impressive audition, but producers deemed him too big for the role.

13. A ton of guest actors bit the dust on their respective Gunsmoke appearances, but the last actor to "die" on the show turned out to be a pretty famous one. A young Gary Busey met his maker in 1975's "The Busters."

14. If you've ever used the phrase "Get out of Dodge," then you've referenced Gunsmoke! The frontier town of Dodge City, Kansas was the setting for the show, in which Matt Dillon often commanded defeated criminals to hit the road.

15. In the radio series and the first few TV seasons, Miss Kitty wasn't shy about the fact that she ran a brothel. This illicit career made executives and advertisers nervous, however, so writers changed her job to that of a saloon owner.

16. Capitalizing on the popularity of The Brady Bunch, three of the kid actors guest-starred on the Western in 1969: Christopher Knight (Peter), Eve Plumb (Jan), and Susan Olsen (Cindy). For once, it wasn't all about "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!"

17. Prior to its 1955 TV debut, Gunsmoke started out as a gritty radio program. While producers translated all four main characters to the screen, they didn't end up using any of the original voice performers.

18. Gunsmoke went through a ton of changes over its two decades, most strikingly in its cast and its expansion from 30 to 60 minute episodes. No live-action, primetime scripted series has run for a longer period of time.

19. Despite being a mainstay of the show, Doc Adams didn't have a first name for ten seasons! When the moment came for it to finally be revealed, writers let Milburn Stone choose the name. He opted for Galen, after an ancient Greek physician.

20. Cultural historians credit the smash success of Gunsmoke with ushering in a boom of TV Westerns. The imitators were too many to count, with only one show able to match the popularity of the Matt Dillon epic.