He is known for illustrations of children's picture books, especially collaborations with writer Margaret Wise Brown, including Goodnight Moon (1947) and The Runaway Bunny (1942).

[3] He was educated at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire,[4] then studied architecture[5] at Yale University and painting with Fernand Léger in Paris.

Their next book, Goodnight Moon (1947), is considered classic children's literature in North America; by 1990, the total number of copies sold was more than four million.

[5] His son, Thacher Hurd, is also a children's book author and illustrator, and referred in an interview to the "wonderful aura of creativity" surrounding his father and the Vermont farm that was their home.

[4] A doctored/altered photo of Hurd was included in the 60th anniversary republication of Goodnight Moon with a cigarette removed from his hand, an incident of tobacco bowdlerization that caused controversy over publication standards.