![Author Amy Krouse Rosenthal, who had terminal cancer, has died.](/web/20170512142658im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/q/w/q/h/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.guxcg2.png/1489440598743.jpg)
Amy Krouse Rosenthal, a Chicago author who wrote a heart-wrenching column called You May Want to Marry My Husband while battling ovarian cancer, died on Monday at 51.
Rosenthal was a prolific creator described on her website as "a person who likes to make things". That description includes children's books and "grown-up books", salads, short films, "connections with the universe", "something out of nothing" and "wishes."
Rosenthal's, at times whimsical, work received numerous accolades. She wrote more than 30 children's books, including Little Pea, Uni the Unicorn, I Wish You More, Exclamation Mark, Spoon, Chopsticks, Duck! Rabbit!, Yes Day, The OK Book, The Wonder Book, Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons, Plant a Kiss and Wumbers, according to her website.
Amazon named her Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life a top 10 memoir of the decade.
Rosenthal's longtime agent, Amy Rennert, confirmed her death to the Associated Press.
Rosenthal recently touched people around the world with an essay about her husband. Knowing that her time was limited, Rosenthal used the Modern Love column in the New York Times to memorialise her marriage and offer her husband, Jason, an opportunity to find a new love.
In the essay, which went viral, Rosenthal recalled their first encounter - a blind date organised by a friend who thought they'd be perfect for each other.
They were.
"I want more time with Jason. I want more time with my children. I want more time sipping martinis at the Green Mill Jazz Club on Thursday nights," Rosenthal wrote. "But that is not going to happen. I probably have only a few days left being a person on this planet. So why I am doing this?
"I am wrapping this up on Valentine's Day, and the most genuine, non-vase-oriented gift I can hope for is that the right person reads this, finds Jason, and another love story begins."
Nili Yelin, a local children's story teller known as "The Storybook Mom", said she's known Rosenthal for more than a decade. The two met through the Book Cellar, an independent book store in Chicago's Lincoln Square.
Yelin said Little Pea is her all-time favourite children's picture book and when she was introduced to Rosenthal, "I recited the entire book to Amy and I said, 'We're either going to be good friends or you're going to think I'm crazy.'"
They became friends.
Yelin called Rosenthal "the goddess of picture books" and remembered her as a generous mentor who would share feedback on Yelin's writing. She last saw Rosenthal in the fall, at a Make a Wish Foundation event at the Lincoln Park Zoo, where Rosenthal wore a jacket depicting her picture book covers.
"She's the most creative person I know," Yelin said.
Rosenthal is survived by her husband, Jason, and three children: Justin, Miles and Paris.
Chicago Tribune