Robert Bright

Robert Bright (August 5, 1902 - November 21, 1988) was an American author and illustrator of children's literature who wrote and illustrated over 20 books in his 40-year career. He is best known for Georgie (1944), a children's classic about a friendly and shy little ghost who lives in Mr. and Mrs. Whittaker's attic.

Bright was born in Sandwich, Massachusetts to Edward Bright and Blanche Denio Wright of New York City. His father was a journalist and his mother was the daughter of Ebenezer Kellogg Wright, president of the National Park Bank in New York City.

In 1903 the family moved to Germany where Robert Bright's father attended the University of Göttingen to study mathematics. Robert Bright attended the Vorschule and the Oberrealschule and spoke English only at home. In 1914, at the onset of World War I, Bright and his mother and brother were vacationing in England but Bright's father, Edward, was still in Germany where he was helping students to flee the country. He was arrested as an English spy and was incarcerated in a basement room opposite the Gottingen City Hall for nine months.

At the end of Edward Bright's incarceration in Germany, the family returned to the United States where Robert Bright attended grammar school at Buckingham Browne & Nichols and Phillips Academy Andover. After graduating in 1921, Bright attended Princeton University and graduated in 1925. There he majored in English and won a competition to the Princeton Press Club which allowed him to write columns for various city newspapers including the New York World, The Baltimore Sun, The Philadelphia Ledger, The Boston Transcript and The Standard News Association.

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