It’s the birthday of Richard Scarry (1919-1994), one of the most beloved children’s book authors of all time. Scarry wrote more than 250 books that were translated into dozens of languages and sold over 100 million copies; his main audience were toddlers who prudently recognized Scarry’s books as an excellent way to acquire language skills.

From Tim Collins, former toddler and current physicist: “Scarry had an ability to firmly establish clear categories and nomenclature so that there was just no doubt in the world that somewhere out there was a hotdog car being driven by a little mouse, because [Scarry] had labeled one as such. There’s a clarity to the world that he created which was just comforting and enjoyable and sparked imagination.”

Scarry was born in Boston, Massachusetts; his parents ran a store and were financially secure even during the Depression, and Scarry’s childhood was a happy one. Scarry started business college, hated it, and switched to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. After he was drafted into the U.S. Army, Scarry served as an editor, director, illustrator, and writer with the Morale Services Section of Allied Forces HQ in North Africa. (That’s the kind of combat I’d like to see, if I had to see combat.) After the war, Scarry freelanced as an artist for magazines and began illustrating the work of children’s book authors such as Margaret Wise Brown, Kathryn Jackson, and Patricia Murphy, the latter of whom he up and married in 1948.

Scarry began writing and illustrating his own books for Little Golden Books beginning with Mouse’s House in 1949 and hit the big time with Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever in 1963. This was Scarry’s first bestseller and contained over 1400 items, a ton of anthropomorphic animals, and concepts like sharing and helping. Other bestsellers include Richard Scarry’s Please & Thank You (1973), Richard Scarry’s Find Your ABC’s (1973), Richard Scarry’s Best Mother Goose Ever (1999), I Am a Bunny (1963), and Richard Scarry’s Best Storybook Ever (2000). (Some of these were put together posthumously.) In fact, at one time Scarry was author of eight of the 50 bestselling children’s hardcovers of all time.

And the highest praise of all: Scarry’s books are known to be used and loved so hard that they end up held together with tape. (Of course, his readers are more likely than most to chew on their books.)

Scarry and his family moved to Gstaad, Switzerland, in 1972, which may be why his later books often incorporate Swiss clothing and half-timber houses. Scarry died of a heart attack at Saanen Hospital in Gstaad at the age of 74. But his latest book, Best Lowly Worm Book Ever!, came out in 2014, finished by Scarry’s son, Huck Scarry, also a children’s book writer and illustrator. (Lowly Worm, who wears a Tyrolean hat, was never intended to be a major character, but children loved him and started sending him fan mail.)

Have a delightful Wednesday stuffed with whimsical nomenclature and stay scrupulously honest to the data.