Marguerite Henry
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Marguerite Henry (April 13, 1902-November 26, 1997) was an American writer. The author of fifty-nine books based on true stories of horses and other animals, her work has captivated entire generations of children and young adults and won several Newbery Awards and Honors. Among the more famous of her works was Misty of Chincoteague, which was the basis for the 1961 movie Misty, and several sequel books.
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[edit] Biography
"It is exciting to me that no matter how much machinery replaces the horse, the work it can do is still measured in horsepower ... even in the space age. And although a riding horse often weighs half a ton and a big drafter a full ton, either can be led about by a piece of string if he has been wisely trained. This to me is a constant source of wonder and challenge." This quote was from an article about Henry published in the Washington Post on November 28, 1997, in response to a query about her drive to write about horses.
Marguerite Henry inspired children all over the world with her love of animals, especially horses. Author of over fifty children's stories, including the Misty of Chincoteague series, Henry's love of animals started during her childhood. Unfortunately, Henry was stricken with a rheumatic fever at the age of six, which kept her bedridden until the age of twelve. Born to Louis and Anna Breithaupt, the youngest of the five children, Henry was a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Because of her illness, Henry wasn't allowed to go to school with other children because of her weak state and the fear of spreading the illness to others. While she was confined indoors, she discovered the joy of reading. Soon afterwards, she also discovered a love for writing when her father, a publisher, presented her with a writing desk for Christmas. On the top of stacks of colored paper her father wrote, “Dear Last of the Mohicans: Not a penny for your thoughts, but a tablet. Merry Christmas! Pappa Louis XXXX.”
Henry's first published work came at the age of eleven, a short story about a collie and a group of children, which she sold to a magazine for $12. Henry always wrote about animals, such as dogs, cats, birds, foxes, and even mules, but chiefly her stories focused on horses.
In 1923, she married Sidney Crocker Henry. During their sixty-four years of marriage they didn't have children, but instead had many pets that inspired some of Marguerite’s stories.
In 1947, she published Misty of Chincoteague and it was an instant success. Later, this book—as well as Justin Morgan had a Horse and Brighty of the Grand Canyon—were made into movies.
She finished her last book, Brown Sunshine of Sawdust Valley, just before her death on November 26, 1997 at the age of 95.
[edit] Misty of Chincoteague
The idea of writing about the ponies of Chincoteague came from Henry's editor, who attended the now-famous Pony Penning Day on Assateague Island in 1945 and suggested that Henry visit the island for inspiration for her next story. Little did he know that that suggestion would produce a Newbery Honor book (1948), Misty of Chincoteague, one of the best-known children's books of all time, as well as its sequels, Sea Star: Orphan of Chincoteague and Stormy, Misty's Foal.
To write Misty of Chincoteague, Henry flew to Chincoteague on Virginia's Eastern Shore in 1946 and began interviewing the residents of the rural island. It was there that Henry met the Beebe family, the main characters in her Misty of Chincoteague series. It was Jeanette Beebe's niece and nephew, Maureen and Paul, whose dream of owning a wild pony was the inspiration for the book.
There are two islands off the coasts of Maryland and Virginia. One is called Chincoteague, and is closer to the mainland. The one that is further away is a 37-mile island called Assateague, which is divided in two by a fence acting as an extended border of Maryland and Virginia. Each year, some of the ponies are taken from Assateague over to the main Chincoteague Island, and there they are rounded up and auctioned off. The proceeds benefit the Chincoteague Fire Company and over-population is averted for the wild herd.
In 1961, the movie Misty was filmed on-location at Chincoteague. Featuring many local citizens as characters, Misty became one of the all-time favorite family films.
The following year, a major Nor'easter winter storm, the Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962, struck Chincoteague and Assateague Islands. The real Misty survived by being brought inside the Beebe family's house, where she gave birth to a foal named "Stormy" shortly later. Possibly due to a combination of publicity from the books and movie and the damage from the 1962 storm, most of Assateague Island was preserved from development as Assateague Island National Seashore in 1965.
Henry's books brought a new life to the small obscure islands off the coast of Virginia and Maryland. Thousands of people make the trip every year to Virginia's Eastern Shore to see the now-famous "Pony Penning" which includes a swim across Assateague Channel and the auction, helping both the community and the herd of wild ponies.
[edit] Awards
Henry received the Newbery Honor for two of her books, Justin Morgan Had a Horse in 1945 and for Misty of Chincoteague, in 1948. She received the Newbery Medal in 1949 for King of the Wind.
[edit] Works
(Incomplete list)
- Auno and Tauno: A Story of Finland (1940)
- Dilly Dally Sally (1940)
- Alaska in Story and Pictures (1941)
- Birds at Home (1942)
- Geraldine Belinda (1942)
- Their First Igloo On Baffin Island (1943)
- A Boy and a Dog (1944)
- Justin Morgan Had a Horse (1945) - Newbery Honor Book, 1946
- The Little Fellow (1945)
- Robert Fulton, Boy Craftsman (1945)
- Bermuda in story and pictures (1946)
- Misty of Chincoteague (1947) - Newbery Honor Book, 1948
- Always Reddy (1947)
- Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin (1947)
- King of the Wind (1948) - Newbery Medal winner, 1949
- Little-or-Nothing from Nottingham (1949)
- Sea Star, Orphan of Chincoteague (1949)
- Born To Trot (1950)
- Album of Horses (1951)
- Brighty of the Grand Canyon (1953)
- Album of Dogs (1955)
- Cinnabar, the One O'Clock Fox (1956)
- Misty, the Wonder Pony, by Misty, Herself (1956)
- Black Gold (1957)
- Muley-Ears, Nobody's Dog (1959)
- Gaudenzia, Pride of the Palio (1960)
- All About Horses (1962)
- Five O'Clock Charlie (1962)
- Stormy, Misty's Foal (1963)
- White Stallion of Lipizza (1964)
- Mustang, Wild Spirit of the West (1966)
- Stories from Around the World (1971)
- San Domingo, The Medicine Hat Stallion (1972)
- A Pictoral Life Story of Misty (1976)
- Our First Pony (1984)
- Misty's Twilight (1992)
- Album of Horses: A Pop-Up Book (1993)
- Brown Sunshine of Sawdust Valley (1996)
(Works with unknown dates)
- My Misty Diary
[edit] Movies
- Misty (1961) at the Internet Movie Database
- Brighty of the Grand Canyon (1967) at the Internet Movie Database
- Justin Morgan Had a Horse (1972) at the Internet Movie Database
- Peter Lundy and the Medicine Hat Stallion (1977) at the Internet Movie Database
- King of the Wind (1989) at the Internet Movie Database
[edit] Bibliography
- Collins, David R. (1999) Write a book for me: The story of Marguerite Henry, Morgan Reynolds, Inc. 112 pp.
- J. Murray
- "Marguerite Henry 1902-1997." Publisher's Weekly 15 December. 1997:27.
- Mooar, Brian. "Marguerite Henry Wrote 'Misty of Chincoteague'." Washington Post thirty eight Nov. 1997, national ed.:106.
- "Chincoteague Island Homepage" http://www.chincoteague.com/ Accessed 3 May 2001.
- "Titles by Marguerite Henry" http://www154.pair.com/redgroup/MargueriteHenry.html Accessed 26 May 2001.
- Contents also from an essay written by a student of Susan Davis at St. Timothy's School in Stevenson, MD.
[edit] External links
- Chincoteague Homepage - As the name says, the homepage for Chicoteague Island. More information about the island, as well as a schedule for Pony Penning, and pictures of past Pennings.
- Horse Tails: Misty of Chincoteague - the web site has some good black and white photos, including Marguerite with Misty
