The wonder child of prolific American cartoonist and author R.W Winfield, Millie Moonbeam is most famous for her adventures and perils as the protagonist of Winfield’s 1920s book, “Hearth of Meadowvalley.” 

In this book Millie, a small firefly, falls out of her garden one morning and into the fields of Meadowvalley, an all encompassing world of green flowers and vines. Filled with bugs, pixies, and fearsome critters, she must find the dying hearth of Meadowvalley and reignite it with her light. 

In these books, Millie was characterized as a sympathetic but fairly clueless individual, prone to making situations worse with her involvement. This served as a way to introduce audiences to her world as she encountered new people and places and had them explained to her. Millie had a propensity for fire, as she was the only character in her world that could wield it, and although eager to share her gift with others, sometimes she got carried away- especially around her more wooden friends. 

The story was a great hit with audiences and Winfield would go on to write further stories featuring Millie Moonbeam, but she would go on to be slightly overshadowed by Winfield’s other character, Wistful Winnie. Regardless, Millie was a very important character in Winfields life as he had no children or surviving family to speak of. When interviewed following the release of his third novel, he was noted as saying, “Millie, in all her wonder and luminous charm, is my only daughter.”