Beverly Cleary

American writer of children's and young adult fiction, one of her country's most successful authors, 91 million copies of whose books have been sold worldwide since her first book was published in 1950. Some of her best known characters are Ramona Quimby and Beezus Quimby, Henry Huggins and his dog Ribsy, and Ralph S. Mouse.

The majority of Cleary's books are set in the Grant Park neighborhood of northeast Portland, Oregon, where she was raised, and she has been credited as one of the first authors of children's literature to figure emotional realism in the narratives of her characters, often children in middle-class families. Her first children's book, Henry Huggins, was written in response to a question from a kid when Cleary was a librarian.

Cleary won the 1981 National Book Award for Ramona and Her Mother and the 1984 Newbery Medal for Dear Mr. Henshaw. For her lifetime contributions to American literature, she received the National Medal of Arts, recognition as a Library of Congress Living Legend, and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal from the Association for Library Service to Children. The Beverly Cleary School, a public school in Portland, was named after her, and several statues of her most famous characters were erected in Grant Park in 1995.

She married Clarence Cleary in 1940. In 1955, Cleary gave birth to their twins, Malcolm and Marianne. Clarence died in 2004. Beverly Cleary died on 25 March 2021 at the age of 104 in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.