![The original, 1963 cover of Clifford the Big Red Dog. "[I] was shocked when it was accepted for publication, because I'd never written anything before," says Norman Bridwell.](https://i2.wp.com/media.npr.org/assets/img/2014/12/16/clifford_custom-b28a6dcc3741db1818e78644a093525e3aab77f1-s400-c85.jpg "The original, 1963 cover of Clifford the Big Red Dog. \"[I] was shocked when it was accepted for publication, because I'd never written anything before,\" says Norman Bridwell.")
The creator of the beloved Clifford series has died at age 86. Clifford himself is over 50 years old, though one can’t see a hair of gray in his bright red fur.
From NPR:
"Norman Bridwell’s books about Clifford, childhood’s most lovable dog, could only have been written by a gentle man with a great sense of humor," Scholastic president and CEO Dick Robinson said. "Norman personified the values that we as parents and educators hope to communicate to our children – kindness, compassion, helpfulness, gratitude."
As the AP notes, "Clifford became standard nighttime reading for countless families and a money machine for publisher Scholastic Inc. Spinoffs include cartoons with John Ritter as the voice of Clifford and future Hunger Games novelist Suzanne Collins among the script writers."
