Bill Martin, Jr. Collection

Bill Martin, Jr. (born William Ivan Martin) was a writer most renowned as a children’s author, as well as a poet, a teacher, and an elementary-school principal.

Martin was born William Ivan Martin on March 20, 1916 in Hiawatha, Kansas, one of five boys. He was named after his father William, a paperhanger, and his mother Iva. He was teased about his middle name as a child, and left it off his official application at Emporia State University. Noting that his father was also named "William Martin," school officials added Junior to his name, thus effectively rechristening him Bill Martin, Jr.

Attentive and intelligent, Martin was a good student, but he had considerable difficulty reading more than a sentence or so at a time. He ultimately taught himself how to read by studying books of poetry he had memorized at Emporia State. After graduating, he taught drama, English, and journalism at high schools in Newton and St. John, Kansas, before serving in the Army Air Forces during World War II as a newspaper editor. In 1942, he married Betty Jean Bachmann, with whom he had two children: Danielle and Gary (who died in 1963). The couple divorced in 1978.

In 1945, Martin published his first book, The Little Squeegy Bug, which was illustrated by his brother Bernard. It sold over a million copies and was acclaimed by Eleanor Roosevelt. In all, the Martin brothers collaborated on 11 books between 1945 and 1955. During the 1950s, Bill Martin, Jr. was also the host of a regional television program called The Storyteller.

During the late 1950s, Martin completed both master’s and doctoral degrees in early childhood education at Northwestern University. He then worked as a principal at Crown Island Elementary School in Evanston, Illinois, before moving to New York City in 1961. There, while the editor in chief of Holt Rinehart & Winston’s school division during the 1960s, he developed school reading programs such as the Instant Reader books and the Sounds of Language series for beginning readers. In 1972, he became a full-time children’s author. Martin was one of the first children’s authors to tour bookstores and schools, where he read his new books aloud to children; he also produced audiotapes of his works.

In total, Martin wrote or co-wrote more than 300 children’s books, including bestsellers such as Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?; Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?; Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?; Knots on a Counting Rope; and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Many of his books were illustrated by his friend Eric Carle. He wrote Brown Bear, regarded by many as his magnum opus, during a 33-minute trip on the Long Island Railroad.

His style as an author made prominent use of adventure and rhythmic wordplay. In a 2004 interview, Martin described his work as creating "simple poetry that children know in their hearts," and he noted that his writing was inspired by his own learning experiences as a young reader as well as the storytelling abilities of his grandmother and fifth-grade teacher.

In 1993, Martin moved from New York to Northeast Texas, where he settled near Commerce. Near the end of his career, he collaborated with his neighbor Michael Sampson on more than 20 books. In 1996, he was honored by the creation of the Bill Martin, Jr. Picture Book Award by the Kansas Reading Association, which is given to one picture book each year. Martin died in Commerce on August 11, 2004.