brown's first published children's book was "when the wind blew", published in 1937 by harper & brothers. impressed by brown's "here and now" style, w. r. scott hired her as his first editor in 1938. through scott, she published the "noisy book" series among others. as editor at scott, one of brown's first projects was to recruit contemporary authors to write children's books for the company. ernest hemingway and john steinbeck neglected to respond, but brown's hero gertrude stein accepted the offer. stein's book "the world is round" was illustrated by clement hurd, who had previously teamed with brown on w. r. scott's "bumble bugs and elephants", considered "perhaps the first modern board book for babies." brown and hurd later teamed on the children's book classics "the runaway bunny" and "goodnight moon", published by harper. in addition to publishing a number of brown's books, under her editorship w. r. scott published edith thacher hurd's first book, "hurry hurry", and esphyr slobodkina's classic "caps for sale".