Stone Soup author Ann McGovern dies at 85

Ann McGovern, the author of the classroom staple Stone Soup, died Saturday in New York from cancer. She was 85.

McGovern wrote more than 50 children's books, but none more famous than Stone Soup, based on a fable that teaches cooperation. Millions of copies of the book have been sold since it was first published in 1968. Another book, Mr. Skinner's Skinny House, was inspired by a house that McGovern lived in for seven years: The former New York City home of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, which was barely eight feet wide.

During a difficult childhood, McGovern read fairy tales and adventure stories, and started a magazine in high school for poetry and stories, the Los Angeles Times reports. Her first job in publishing was at Little Golden Books, where she stamped the date on manuscript pages before they went to the printer. After overhearing another employee say the company needed a book on Roy Rogers, she stayed up all night to write Roy Rogers and the Mountain Lion, which was deemed "not too terrible" by an editor and the first of several Little Golden Books she wrote in her 20s.

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McGovern is survived by her children Peter A. McGovern, Charles A. Scheiner, Ann C. Scheiner, and James B. Scheiner; three grandchildren; and companion Ralph Greenberg.