Else Holmelund Minarik

Born in Fredericia, Denmark, Minarik immigrated to the United States at the age of four with her family. As a young child in Denmark, she was introduced to the stories of Hans Christian Andersen.^[4] By 1940, Else had married Walter Minarik, who died in 1963.^[1] After graduating from Queens College, City University of New York (B.A., 1942), she became a journalist, for the Daily Sentinel newspaper of Rome, New York, during World War II. She subsequently lived on Long Island, where she was employed as a first-grade teacher for the Commack School District.^[2] Her first book, Little Bear, was borne out of her desire to write something her students could read on their own.^[5]

She later lived in West Nottingham, New Hampshire. Minarik married her second husband, Pulitzer-winning journalist Homer Bigart, in 1970;^[1] after his death in 1991, she moved to Sunset Beach^[3] in Brunswick County, North Carolina, where she continued writing longhand, as she always had.^[6][7]

Minarik's last book, Little Bear and the Marco Polo, was published in 2010. After having suffered a heart attack at 91, she died at home from complications, on July 12, 2012.^[2][8][9]

• Little Bear series (illustrated by Maurice Sendak, except for the last entry):
  1. Little Bear (1957)
  2. Father Bear Comes Home (1959)
  3. Little Bear's Friend (1960)
  4. Little Bear's Visit (1961)
  5. A Kiss for Little Bear (1968)
  6. Little Bear and the Marco Polo (2010) – illustrated by Dorothy Doubleday^[2]
• No Fighting, No Biting! (1958) – illustrated by Maurice Sendak
• Cat and Dog (1960) – illustrated by Fritz Siebel (published with new illustrations by Bryan Langdo in 2005)
• The Little Giant Girl and Elf Boy (1963) – illustrated by Garth Williams^[10]
• Percy and the Five Houses (1989) – illustrated by James Stevenson