Norman Birdwell by Taylor Bryant

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Norman Birdwell

Published on Feb 18, 2024

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By: Taylor Bryant

Norman Birdwell was born in Kokomo, Indiana in 1928 later died in 2014 in the town of Martha's Vineyard where he lived for years.
He is famously known for writing the Clifford Book series, where he has sold 60 million copies
One hundred twenty-six million copies of his books are in print across 13 languages.
Studied at John Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis.
Moved to New York to continue his learning for art at Cooper Union.

Norman Birdwell started freelancing as on a filmstrip drawing mostly cartoon characters. He decided to put a portfolio together of colorful drawings to show to children's book publishers.
After he got married and had a child he needed to provide for his family he visited publishing warehouses to show his illustrations but was turned down every-time.
One lady from Harper & Row told him his art was not good and she doesn't believe anyone would want to work with him. She then told him good news that he could possible write a story about one of the pictures. Picking the drawing of the dog and girl she told him "there might be a story in this."
From there Norman got write to work to create Clifford the Big Red Dog make a few changes here and there.
He's genre of choice was children's literature.

Norman received a lot of awards for his work during his life time.
Ludington Award (1991)
Honorary Degree (1994)
President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning Technology
Part-Time Teaching Award
Lieber Memorial Associate Instructor Award
Chancellor and Provost Medallion
Distinguished International Service Award
John W. Ryan Award for Distinguished Contributions to International Programs and Studies
E. Ross Bartley Award

Norman Birdwell wrote other books and series, "The Witch Next Door," "How to Care for Your Monster," and The Witch Grows Up."
The character Emily Elizabeth is named after his daughter.
Norman freelanced before writing Clifford
I was aware that there were a variety of Clifford Books, but I didn't realize there were 75 copies.
He had a love for art more than anything.
Norman wanted to name the dog Tiny, but his wife said that was crazy and told him why not Clifford.

As a teacher to preschool students, who are very adamant about completing a task. They sometimes give up and don't want to try again.
I would tell them about Norman and how he never gave up on what he loved his carrer path just changed.
I would then talk about God because I work at a Christian school. I would remind them that God is with us daily and has faith in us even when we don't have faith in ourselves.