Now Open the Box

Dorothy Meserve Kunhardt (1901–1979) was an American author of books for small children and is best known for Pat the Bunny (1940), one of the all-time best-selling children’s books in the United States. Her first book, Junket Is Nice (which is also part of the The New York Review Children’s Collection), was a success when it appeared in 1933 and was followed by Now Open the Box, Lucky Mrs. Ticklefeather, Brave Mr. Buckingham, and Tiny Animal Stories. Kunhardt published nearly fifty books, including several nonfiction works for adults about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War (her father amassed a legendary collection of Civil War–era photographs and memorabilia). Several years after her death, Philip B. Kunhardt Jr. remembered his mother’s boundless curiosity and appreciation for the way young people observe the world, writing in The New York Times that “for Dorothy Kunhardt a children’s book was nothing more or less than a way to talk to children.”