The hotel was built by her grandfather, the owner of a lumber business, in 1909. Like Miss Rumphius, Cooney was born in Brooklyn-Room 1127 of the Bossert Hotel in Brooklyn Heights, to be exact. According to Barnaby, Miss Rumphius comes as close to an autobiography as Cooney is likely to write.

So I spoke to her son and daughter-in-law, Barnaby and Susan Porter, who live near Cooney in Maine.

But ongoing health problems have made it hard for her to get back to work and give interviews. The will to write and draw remains strong in Cooney, who has illustrated more than 100 children’s books, won two Caldecott Medals (children’s literature awards), and has told people that she plans to live to be 100. She suffered a stroke and kidney failure that hospitalized her for six weeks last fall, and turned 82 in August. I can picture that blanket lying at the end of Cooney’s bed now. And the soft gray blanket on Miss Rumphius’ bed is one that Cooney bought in Kashmir. The landscapes where Miss Rumphius sows lupine seeds (to make the world a little more beautiful, as her grandfather mandates at the beginning of the book) are drawn from the area around the author’s home near Damariscotta, Maine. Nicholas icon on the dedication page of the book is based on a tin medal that the author found during her travels in Greece. It also made me want to know the author, who used bits and pieces of her own life in writing and illustrating Miss Rumphius.įor example, Alice, the little girl who narrates the story, is Cooney’s grandmother, and the St.

Miss rumphius