Marguerite Henry (née Breithaupt; April 13, 1902 – November 26, 1997)[2][3][4] was an American writer of children's books, writing fifty-nine books based on true stories of horses and other animals. She won the Newbery Medal for King of the Wind, a 1948 book about horses, and she was a runner-up for two others.[5] One of the latter, Misty of Chincoteague (1947), was the basis for several related titles and the 1961 movie Misty.
Biography
Born to Louis and Anna Breithaupt, the youngest of five children, Henry was a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.[2][6] Henry was stricken with rheumatic fever at the age of six, which kept her bedridden until the age of twelve. She was unable to attend school with other children due to her weak condition and the fear of spreading the illness to other people. While confined indoors, she discovered the joy of reading.[citation needed] Henry's love of animals started during her childhood. Soon afterwards, she also discovered a love for writing when her parents presented her with a writing desk for Christmas. Henry later said, "At last I had a world of my very own – a writing world, and soon it would be populated by all the creatures of my imagination."[7]
Henry sold her first story at the age of 11. The Delineator (a popular women's magazine) had solicited articles about the four seasons from children, and she was paid $12 (now about $250) for "Hide-and-Seek in Autumn Leaves".[1] She often wrote about animals, such as dogs, cats, birds, foxes, and mules, but chiefly her stories focused on horses.
She studied at Milwaukee State Teachers College.[8]
After graduation she traveled to Wisconsin's North Woods with her family and met a traveling salesman from Sheboygan, Sidney Crocker Henry. On May 5, 1923, Marguerite married Sidney Henry in Milwaukee.[2] The couple moved to the north side of Chicago where Marguerite launched her writing career by writing for magazines.[9] During their 64 years of marriage they did not have any children, but instead had numerous pets that served as the inspiration for some of Marguerite's stories. They lived in Wayne, Illinois.
In 1945, Henry began a 20-year collaboration with artist Wesley Dennis. "I had just finished writing Justin Morgan Had a Horse," she recalled, "and wanted the best horse artist in the world to illustrate it. So I went to the library, studied the horse books, and immediately fell in love with the work of Will James and Wesley Dennis. When I found out that Will James was dead, I sent my manuscript to Wesley Dennis."[10] Henry and Dennis eventually collaborated on nearly 20 books.
Misty of Chincoteague was published in 1947 and was an instant success. In 1961, it was adapted for film, as were Justin Morgan had a Horse (1972) and Brighty of the Grand Canyon (1967).[a]San Domingo, the Medicine Hat Stallion was adapted for television as Peter Lundy and the Medicine Hat Stallion in 1977.
Henry's last book was Brown Sunshine of Sawdust Valley, a 93-page novel published in September 1996, when she was 94 years old. Kirkus Reviews called it "Vintage Henry ...a lighthearted version of the old girl-meets-horse story; only this time, the horse is a mule."[11]
She died on November 26, 1997,[6] at home in Rancho Santa Fe, California, after multiple strokes.[4]
Legacy
Misty features the annual Pony Penning of feral horses from Assateague Island, a two-day round-up, swim, and auction that Henry had been "sent to look at" by her hopeful editor, Mary Alice Jones.[12] She created several Misty-related titles including two more children's novels illustrated by Dennis, Sea Star, Orphan of Chincoteague (1949) and Stormy, Misty's Foal (1963). The beneficiaries of "Marguerite Henry's Legacy", as a Washington Post editorial termed local tourism, were the Assateague nature preserve and Chincoteague town.[12] Within her lifetime Pony Penning itself drew about 25,000 visitors[12] and their number was 40 to 50,000 according to a local estimate ten years later.[13] In 2023 the Museum of Chincoteague raised donations to purchase the Beebe Ranch—the location where Misty was born in 1946.
Stories from Around the World, edited and with an introduction by Marguerite Henry (1974)[18]
The Little Fellow (revised), illus. Rich Rudish (1975)
A Pictorial Life Story of Misty, drawings by Wesley Dennis (1976)
One Man's Horse, illus. Wesley Dennis, "with famous paintings and prints by selected artists" (1977) – selections from Born to Trot (1950), LCCN77-10080
The Illustrated Marguerite Henry, illus. Wesley Dennis, Robert Lougheed, Lynd Ward, Rich Rudish (1980) – biographical material about these four of her illustrators, with selections from their work, LCCN80-52017
Our First Pony, illus. Rich Rudish (1984)
Misty's Twilight, illus. Karen Haus Grandpre (1992)
Album of Horses: a pop-up book, illus. Ezra N. Tucker (1993)
Brown Sunshine of Sawdust Valley, illus. Bonnie Shields (1996)
My Misty Diary, illus. Bill Farnsworth (1997)
Pictured Geography
Albert Whitman and Company of Chicago published the Pictured Geography series in the 1940s. Four sets of eight 28-page children's picture books about world nations and other territories were illustrated by Kurt Wiese. Henry wrote the texts for the first and fourth sets.[19] At least one library catalog record indicates a "preschool" audience.[20]Kirkus Reviews observed in a brief contemporary positive review of the fourth series, "Third and fourth graders will find this a pleasant way to expand the confines of school geographies."[21]
Bernadine Bailey wrote the second, 1942 series; Lois Donaldson the third, 1944 series.[19]
The Virgin Islands volume was reviewed briefly in the "New Biological Books" section of The Quarterly Review of Biology: "A brief account of the historical, economic, and geographical features of the Virgin Islands. The illustrations are not particularly attractive to the reviewer, but the text should serve to introduce children to this little-known possession of the United States."[24]
^Brighty of the Grand Canyon (1953) may have originated with Dennis. The National Sporting Library hosted an exhibition of work by Wesley Dennis late in 2001. According to a contemporary biographical sketch by one NSL librarian, Dennis was in New Mexico c. 1940 "to gather material for a book idea he called Brighty of the Grand Canyon". By chance he met the children's book editor May Massee there, which proved to be a crucial breakthrough in his career.[25]
^ ab
Mooar, Brian. " Misty' Author Marguerite Henry Dies at Age 95". The Washington Post. November 27, 1997. Page C7. Quote: "died Nov. 26 at her home in Rancho Santa Fe". Lead paragraphs at HighBeam Research (highbeam.com); full text available by subscription.
^Marguerite Henry, Dear Readers and Riders, Rand McNally, 1969, p. 200.
^Newbery Medal Books: 1922–1955, eds. Bertha Mahony Miller, Elinor Whitney Field, Horn Book, 1955, LOC 55-13968, p. 322.
^Friedland, Susan (2023). Marguerite, Misty and Me: A Horse Lover's Hunt for the Hidden History of Marguerite Henry and Her Chincoteague Pony. Chicago: Saddle Seeks Horse Press. pp. 33–34.
^Marguerite Henry, Dear Readers and Riders, New York: Rand McNally & Company, 1969, p. 207.
^ ab"Search results for 'Pictured Geography Kurt Wiese' ". WorldCat. Retrieved 2015-01-30. Whitman, Wiese, and Bailey also produced a long series of U.S. state picture books entitled Picture book of Alabama and so on. See items 7 to 46 in this listing.
^"The Bahamas in story and pictures" OCLC1666590. WorldCat. Retrieved 2015-01-30.
^Catalog of Copyright Entries. New Series: 1946. Copyright Office, Library of Congress. 1947. pp. 301–02. Google e-Book retrieved 2015-01-26.
^"Kurt Wiese and the Kangaroo: A Fortunate Internment Story". Irmtraud Petersson. Overland 126 (1992). pp. 50–53. Reprint at Academia.edu retrieved 2015-01-26.
^"[Review]". The Quarterly Review of Biology. 23 (3). The University of Chicago Press: 283. September 1948. doi:10.1086/396576. JSTOR2810799. Retrieved 2015-01-30 (subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries).
^
"Inspired Animation: The Art of Wesley Dennis". Lisa Campbell. The National Sporting Library Newsletter. Fall 2001. Middleburg, VA: National Sporting Library (nsl.org). Reprint. Archived 2011-09-30. Retrieved 2015-01-28. This is a substantial biography associated with a 2001 exhibition at the affiliated art museum of drawings and paintings lent by Morgan, son of Wesley Dennis. Morgan Dennis then was or had been manager of the Middleburg Tennis Club. The institution became the National Sporting Library & Museum prior to the archive date.
Citations
Collins, David R. (1999). Write a Book For Me: The story of Marguerite Henry, Greensboro, NC: Morgan Reynolds, Inc. 112 pp., OCLC40645912
"Marguerite Henry 1902–1997". Publishers Weekly. December 15, 1997. p. 27. Archives available to subscribers.
"Marguerite Henry's Legacy" (editorial). The Washington Post. December 1, 1997. Page A24. Lead sentences at HighBeam Research (highbeam.com); full text available by subscription.
![[1]](/en/File:Marguerite_Henry.jpg)
