Norman Bridwell, the creator of Clifford the Big Red Dog, a figure who looms as large in toddler lit as the great white whale does in the American canon, died on Friday in Oak Bluffs, Mass., on Martha’s Vineyard. He was 86. Kyle Good, a spokeswoman for Scholastic Books, which over the past half-century has published dozens of Clifford titles by Mr. Bridwell, confirmed his death without specifying a cause. Mr. Bridwell’s wife of 56 years, Norma, told The Associated Press that he had prostate cancer and that he had been in the hospital for three weeks after a fall...
