'Arthur' Creator Has A Nose For Children's Fantasy

It seemed like Marc Brown just couldn't keep it together.

He'd tried a series of jobs, from short-order cook to chicken farmer. None of them worked. Each time, he tried to reach for his big opportunity. It just kept eluding him.

As art director for a TV station, he proposed dressing up the weather lady as a fairy and having her fly onto the set. "I hoped the concept would catapult me to a national news job," Brown said. "Instead, it got me another pink slip."

While Brown lost a lot of jobs, he never lost his determination to make it in the field he finally decided he loved -- art.

His never-say-die attitude in that field paid off. He became the creator of the "Arthur" series of best-selling illustrated children's books and the cartoon show, which appears on the Public Broadcasting System.

With nearly 60 million "Arthur" books in print in the U.S. alone, Brown is one of the highest paid children's authors ever, experts say. He's hauled home a slew of honors, including five Emmys for children's animated programming. Several "Arthur" books have received the Children's Choice Award.

Brown, 61, learned from his parents to keep a grip on dreams. He saw how his dad regretted not making a living at pursuits he loved. "My dad, grandfather and great-grandfather worked for railroads. But my dad's true loves were art, antiques and architecture. In his spare time he did drawings. He and my mother dabbled in antiques.

"On Saturdays he'd bring home library books on drawing, architecture and antiques. But he didn't focus on what he wanted to do. That left him frustrated. That taught me to aim for a job I loved."

Like his father, Brown had a keen interest in art. He studied the masters and tried to incorporate their elements into his own drawings and paintings. After earning his fine arts degree from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1969, Brown spent hours honing his skills with brush and crayon, pen and ink. People told him he was good; their praise pushed him to produce better work.

Despite his efforts, Brown's attempts to make a living in art hit roadblocks. When he was a young married father of two sons, the financially strapped junior college where he was teaching illustration was forced to shut down.

Brown considered going to business school. But knowing that patience and diligence can produce lasting rewards, he kept searching for art opportunities. He finally landed another part-time teaching job and tried to fill out his bank account with textbook illustration.

It was tough. Freelance commissions were sporadic. Often he had none. Even when he did get work, many times all his deadlines hit all at once. Still, he took whatever work was offered him.

In what little spare time he had, Brown mulled over ideas for stories. His best idea popped up the night he lost his junior college job. He was in no mood to entertain. But his 4-year-old son, Tolon, insisted on a bedtime story about an animal.

"I thought about bears, bunnies, cats and dogs," Brown said. "But they were used so often."

To find an animal that wasn't common, Brown said he "started going through the alphabet" of animal names. He thought of aardvark.

Brown named him "Arthur." Tolon asked his father to draw him a picture. So Brown sketched Arthur as an 8-year-old aardvark, dressed the way he knew children dressed.

For the story, Brown decided to go with a universal theme -- a child struggling with his appearance. He told a story about Arthur trying to cope with his big nose.

Arthur was a hit with his son. Realizing that his creation had potential among the younger set, Brown focused on fleshing out Arthur's personality for readers.

"Arthur's Nose" was published in 1976. Sales soon skyrocketed.

While his resume is varied, Brown figures he's learned something valuable from each spot he held.

"I found that every job I had, I could draw on," Brown said. "I drew on my experience as flower-truck driver when we did an episode about Arthur getting lost."

He also aims to make Arthur and his friends like the youngsters reading the books.

"Much of the material comes from my childhood," said Brown, who grew up in Millcreek, Pa., outside Erie. "It was a stone's throw from the lake. There were lots of families, kids and pets. Lots of crazy people in old houses. One neighbor used to take me and one of my sisters to picnic at the local cemetery. We'd have cookies on her husband's grave."

Brown keeps a wood carving of a boxer on the desk of his studio office. He says it is a reminder of one of the best traits he inherited from his family: tenacity.

He drove himself to visit stores and libraries in the late 1970s despite a divorce that sapped his spirit. "It was the saddest, lowest point 15f my life," Brown said. "But rather than feeling sorry for myself, I forced myself to go out and talk with people who could tell me what children liked and disliked in books."

Brown's former home in Hingham, Mass., was decorated with antique train models -- reminders of his dad's railroad job and frustration at not pursuing his dreams. Now he lives on Martha's Vineyard.

"I like to give myself a little credit for my courage to go after what I wanted in life here, too," he said.

This story originally ran Aug. 26, 2003, on Leaders & Success.