Talk:Marguerite Henry

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This page was buried in the history listing of Talk October 2005 (UTC)

The text below is now merged with the main article text and should be removed from here, but I will leave it in this page in case someone wants to refer to it. Hilmar 02:15, 2 October 2005 (UTC)

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Marguerite Henry (1902-1997).

Contents

[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 50 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 6, which kept her bedridden until the age of 12. Born on April 13th , 1902 to Louis and Anna Breithaupt, Henry is actually 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. Henry's first published work came at the age of 11, a short story about a collie and a group of children, which she sold to a magazine for $12. Henry would always write about animals, such as dogs, cats, birds, foxes and even mules, but she always came back to horses.

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 Newberry Honor book (1948), Misty of Chincoteague, one of the best-known children's books of all time, as well as its sequels, Stormy, Misty's Foal, and Sea Star: Orphan of Chincoteague.

[edit] Place

To write Misty of Chincoteague , Henry flew to Chincoteague in 1946 and began interviewing the residents. 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 Misty of Chincoteague.

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 divided in two by a fence, which acts as an extended border of Maryland and Virginia. The Maryland part is called Chincoteague, and the Virginia part is called Assateague. 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 Department.

Henry's books brought a new life to these small obscure islands off the coast of Virginia and Maryland. Thousands of people make the trip every year to see the now-famous Pony Penning.

[edit] Works

  • Geraldine Belinda (1942)
  • Justin Morgan Had a Horse (1945)
  • Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin (1947)
  • Misty of Chincoteague (1947)
  • King of the Wind (1948)
  • Sea Star, Orphan of Chincoteague (1949)
  • Born To Trot (1950)
  • Brighty of the Grand Canyon (1953)
  • Black Gold (1957)
  • Muley-Ears, Nobody's Dog (1959)
  • Guadenzia, Pride of the Palio (1960)
  • Stormy, Misty's Foal (1963)
  • Mustang, Wild Spirit of the West (1966)
  • San Domingo, The Medicine Hat Stallion (1972)
  • Brown Sunshine of Sawdust Valley (1996)
  • Album of Horses (?)
  • All About Horses (?)
  • Cinnabar, the One O'Clock Fox (?)
  • Five O'Clock Charlie (?)
  • Misty's Twilight (?)

[edit] Awards

Henry received the Newberry Honor for two of her books, Justin Morgan Had a Horse in 1945 and for Misty of Chincoteague , in 1948. She received the Newberry Medal in 1949 for King of the Wind.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Bibliography

This essay was written by a student of Susan Davis at St. Timothy's School in Stevenson, MD.

[edit] Why so much emphasis on Misty?!

Not that it's not a great book, but why make it the main focus of the article?