This November, Marginalian Editions is reissuing a little-known children’s book by legendary author Margaret Wise Brown. The imprint of McNally Editions, started by Maria Popova in collaboration with Sarah McNally in 2025, focuses on reprinting “forgotten masterworks that deserve a second life.” Its sixth release, The Dark Wood of the Golden Birds, was originally published by Harper & Brothers in 1950, but received little attention and quickly disappeared from shelves.

During her brief lifetime, Brown (1910–1952) wrote more than 100 books for children, including the now-classic Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny, both illustrated by Clement Hurd. Many were published by the celebrated children’s books editor Ursula Nordstrom at Harper, although Golden Books and W.R. Scott were also among Brown’s publishers. A frequent collaborator was Leonard Weisgard, a foremost illustrator of the mid-20th century. Among the many books by Brown that Weisgard illustrated was The Dark Wood of the Golden Birds, which was described by Leonard S. Marcus in his 1992 biography of Brown, Awakened by the Moon, as “a lyrical allegory of the creative process.”

Popova, founder of the cultural blog the Marginalian (originally Brain Pickings), set off on a search for the book after coming across a reference to Brown’s tempestuous relationship with the writer/actor Michael Strange, the stage and pen name of bohemian Blanche Oelrichs, in a footnote in Dear Genius (HarperCollins, 1998), a collection of Nordstrom’s letters edited by Marcus. Her interest piqued, she read Amy Gary’s 2016 biography of Brown, In the Great Green Room (Flatiron). “I’m a great explorer of rabbit holes,” Popova said. In Gary’s book, she learned a great deal about the women’s relationship, and found a mention of The Dark Wood of the Golden Birds, written soon after Brown and Strange’s affair began. In her afterword to the new edition, Popova describes the book as “a love letter in the form of a children’s book.”

Finding a copy was difficult, and when she did, it was expensive. Once she had read the book, her response was mixed. “I loved the story, disliked the art, and found myself exasperated that the book had been so sidelined by its timing, by the biases of its era, and by the fact that Leonard Weisgard, one of the greatest illustrators of his time, really did not do this book justice.”

When Nordstrom asked Weisgard to illustrate The Dark Wood of the Golden Birds, he was at least the third illustrator she approached, according to Marcus’s Awakened by the Moon. Brown had been trying to sell the manuscript—about two orphaned siblings, an old man who takes them in, and “a magic wood... from which there is no return” (as it’s described in the book)—to Harper since before Nordstrom’s tenure. It had been regularly turned down as obscure and too great a departure from her successful work. In 1948, though, Strange was diagnosed with leukemia and Brown threatened to leave Harper if it wasn’t published soon. According to Marcus, “Weisgard did not like the book at all and illustrated it only as a favor to Margaret and to Ursula. Ursula disliked the book, too, and published it only because she was afraid of losing her prize author—who saw the book as a parting gift to her dying lover and wanted it rushed into print so that she could have it to show Strange on her death bed.”

The book was published in July 1950, a few months before Strange died, and was not well received. Kirkus Reviews noted that while a new book by Brown and Weisgard “should be occasion for exultation,” the pair had “gone too far into a rarified atmosphere remote from child interest.”

The McNally edition has met with a far different reception from Kirkus—which starred the book and called it “mesmerizing.” This appreciation is due largely to Israeli artist Ofra Amit’s colored-pencil illustrations, described by Kirkus as suffused with “an eerie, blue-infused half light.” Amit, whose work in the U.S. first appeared in Dafna Ben-Zvi’s Snoozie, Sunny, and So-So (Enchanted Lion, 2020), also illustrated Popova’s essay collection The Universe in Verse (Storey Press, 2024).

Amit said she approached this manuscript “with great respect and a feeling of immense responsibility. I was initially intimidated to step into the shoes of a great illustrator like Weisgard.” Agreeing, though, that this book did not reflect his best work, she decided to proceed. “The manuscript touched my heart because it holds within it the universal themes of parting, loss and death, but also of love, courage, and the life force,” Amit said.

Some readers may find the story’s darkness and ambiguity unsuitable for children. Popova disagrees. “It’s a story without a neat resolution or payoff,” she said. “You’re left suspended in its liminality. I think it may be more comfortable for children than for adults to stay in that state—to be suspended in the unknowing and to feel at home there.”

This is not Popova’s first attempt to reissue the book. In 2022, she and Enchanted Lion publisher Claudia Zoe Bedrick tried to do so, but obtaining the rights from Brown’s estate proved too complicated. When Popova and Sarah McNally initially talked about creating Marginalian Editions, The Dark Wood of the Golden Birds was one of the first books on Popova’s list. “Given the difficulties Claudia and I had, I wasn’t confident that McNally’s rights department would prevail, but they did! I’m delighted and grateful.”

The reissue also boasts a non-standard format, which highlights Amit’s artwork. The original was a rectangular portrait shape, measuring 8.3 inches high by 5.7 inches, while the new 64-page edition is significantly larger at 11 inches high by 6.5 inches wide.

Kate Dwyer, director of publicity at McNally Editions, said that early readers are finding the new edition powerful. “As we have been sharing this title with press and booksellers, we now understand how much important work Maria’s afterword is doing to contextualize the narrative,” she noted. “The backstory of The Dark Wood of the Golden Birds was not publicly known the first time the book was published, and Maria’s essay locates its emotional tenor in a true story of love and loss.”

Whether or not the book finds a place in the canon of children’s literature, this new edition enhances public understanding of a significant writer, shedding light on her complexities and offering a luminous interpretation of a story that was vital to her creative spirit.