Slaven Vlasic/GettyImagesĬoming up with ideas for the Clifford books ”has gotten more difficult over the years,” Bridwell acknowledged in 2012. Bridwell was adamant that Clifford behave like a normal dog.Ĭlifford The Big Red Dog 50th Anniversary Celebration.
Bridwell has said he took his inspiration from the behavior of all types of dogs. Clifford is a bit of a mutt.Įver wonder exactly what type of dog Clifford is? Well, he’s said to have the characteristics of a giant Vizsla now, but the very first prototype-back when he was just the size of a pony instead of a house-was of a rather large bloodhound. ”It was just a given that that's me in the book. ”I don’t remember the point at which I recognized that the girl in the book was actually myself,” she told the Globe in 2004. She was an infant when he was writing the story. Bridwell’s daughter inspired a character.Įmily Elizabeth, the little girl who takes a liking to the runt of the litter in the first book, is named after Bridwell’s own daughter, Emily Elizabeth Bridwell. “Movement and color are aspects of the world a young brain requires to stimulate connections and learning.” 4. That’s really important for brain development for younger kids,” Myra Mendez, Ph.D., LMFT, explained to Scholastic Parents in 2019. When asked how he decided on Clifford’s signature color, Bridwell admitted that “it was red because I happened to have red paint on the drawing table that night.” The color may be one reason kids love Clifford: “He’s a bright color with a lot of movement. “And she went back to her childhood and took the name of an imaginary friend, Clifford, and gave it to the dog.” 3. “Norma said, ‘Well, that’s a stupid name for a dog like that,’” Bridwell told NPR in 2012. Initially, Bridwell called his giant dog Tiny-but his wife, Norma, didn’t think that was right. Clifford is named after an imaginary friend. But Scholastic called just three weeks after he sent in the manuscript and ended up publishing Clifford the Big Red Dog in February 1963.
After all, he’d never written anything before. “I never thought the book would see the light of day,” he told Boston magazine in 2012. One editor finally suggested that Bridwell create a story to go with his drawings of a little girl with pony-like dog (as a kid, Bridwell had wanted a dog he could ride).īridwell wrote the story in three days in 1962. Norman Bridwell was told over and over again that he was never going to make it as an illustrator his art just wasn’t good enough.
Bridwell at the Clifford The Big Red Dog 50th Anniversary Celebration.
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