Talk:Marguerite Henry

Untitled
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)


 * Ten years later. Thanks.
 * This talk page was created 00:25, 19 May 2005‎ 68.23.39.181 as a six-section version of the article above the byline "This essay was written by a student of Susan Davis at St. Timothy's School in Stevenson, MD." The same visitor created the main page as a one-line stub a few minutes later.
 * Now I delete the last four of those sections (as subsections 1.3 to 1.6) --the draft list of Works and three-section footer-- which are entirely redundant. The only comment posted there was my own three days ago, before I recognized the content as simply an early version of the page. That is recreated below as section.
 * --P64 (talk) 16:02, 17 February 2015 (UTC)

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.

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.

Why so much emphasis on Misty?!
Not that it's not a great book, but why make it the main focus of the article? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.15.164.97 (talk • contribs) 17:09, 5 May 2006‎ (UTC)


 * Much of that old material, if reliable, will be welcome in the book/novel article Misty of Chincoteague. Its focus is now Misty, the domestically foaled Chincoteague Pony (categories and )! --and the series of books, coverage I added this week --little about the content of the novel or its relation to Henry's career.
 * --P64 (talk) 16:46, 17 February 2015 (UTC)

Pictured Geography
Visiting one of these books at Amazon.com, I added the annotation and hidden comment thus:
 * 1941 Chile in Story and Pictures (Albert Whitman), 28-page picture book illustrated by Kurt Wiese Chile in Story and Picture. Amazon.com. [!-- are they all published by Albert Whitman as the title "Pictured Geography" suggests? all 28-page picture books? all illustrated by Wiese? --]

--P64 (talk) 22:03, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Our Marguerite Henry lists 16 in two groups published 1941 and 1946. All of those were Henry–Wiese collaborations published by Albert Whitman of Chicago (arranged by Whitman, i suppose). I added that information to the article a couple days ago, perhaps adequately. During internet search then, I glimpsed a mention of the "Fourth Series", suggesting to me that the 1946 set of 8 by Henry–Wiese was Whitman's fourth set but their second.
 * Now I find one bookseller reports a dustjacket for New Zealand (first ed., 1946) that is "Pictured Geographies, Fourth Series" . This leaves open that the two sets of eight (we know or infer from other sources to be complete for Henry–Wiese) were numbered as four "series" by Whitman.
 * From the same bookseller I find two more dustjackets that place Colombia and Uruguay in "Pictured Geographies, Third Series" . These two are by Lois Donaldson and Wiese.
 * From Amazon I find used copies that place Bolivia and Iceland in the "Second Series" (1942) by Bernadine Bailey and Wiese.
 * Hastily I don't find any "Fifth Series".
 * --P64 16:52, 28 January 2015 (UTC) --P64 (talk) 16:59, 28 January 2015 (UTC)
 * There was no Fifth Series illustrated by Wiese. This section of the article is now much expanded, with some sources. See Talk:Kurt Wiese for some more information on the works created with other writers.
 * --P64 (talk) 20:27, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

Henry–Dennis collaboration
We say Henry and Wesley Dennis (illustrator) created 15 books together. Our source --here and in the article, recovered via Internet Archive [used thus in both biographies, 2015-02-06] does say that "the two published 15 books".

Our Marguerite Henry includes 20 listings that name Dennis, published during his lifetime. And two published 1976 and 1977 that may or may not contain any new material by Henry or Dennis. How many distinct works do the 20 represent?

--P64 (talk) 16:38, 28 January 2015 (UTC)
 * Those 20 listings include two editions of their first collaboration, Justin Morgan Had a Horse (1945, 1954), for which LC Catalog records show 89 pp. and 169 pp.; and illustrated, no mention of color
 * Now I have read a paperback issue of the revised edition. All its illustrations are black & white but they are not uniform in "style"--I would say, no art expert, but I suppose they may simply originate as color paintings and b&w drawings by Wesley Dennis, even at one time in his career.


 * Last year Publisher's Weekly announced a forthcoming reissue (from 2014, perhaps 3 biennially) by Simon & Schuster of "deluxe hardcover editions of 20 of Henry’s novels. The books feature a uniform cover look, and many include Wesley Dennis’s original art, digitally refreshed."
 * "Marguerite Henry Books: Once More Out of the Gate". Sally Lodge. Publisher's Weekly. May 13, 2014.
 * Much of that article concerns the illustrations by Dennis. It names only the three fall 2014 and three spring 2015 issues, all of which were illustrated by Dennis. To me, "novels" excludes at least the Album and Portfolio titles among the Henry–Dennis collaborations.
 * --P64 (talk) 21:38, 6 February 2015 (UTC)


 * The statement about there being 15 Henry/Dennis books is an error in the source article. There are 19 distinct Henry/Dennis books plus 5 more that fall into a special category. The 5 are Pictorial Life Story of Misty, The Illustrated Marguerite Henry, Portfolio of Horse Paintings, One Man’s Horse and Dear Readers and Riders.  While these 5 contain new written material, all of the Dennis illustrations are taken from earlier books. So, the count is either 19 or 24 depending on how you look at it. Just a note- Dear Reader and Riders is a question and answer book about MH's works and does not even say "illustrated by" on the cover or title page.  However, older Dennis drawings are included by permission of his sons.


 * I believe the two versions of Justin Morgan Had a Horse should stand as 2 separate books, so I have counted each separately in the 19. The storyline is the same, but the second version was expanded by nearly 100 pages and has all new Wesley Dennis illustrations.  It’s not just slightly revised, it is completely changed. I think both should be left on the booklist with perhaps a footnote of explanation. Rondelet (talk) 21:44, 15 February 2015 (UTC)


 * I just realized that there are exactly 15 Henry/Dennis books published by Rand McNally. (I'm not counting The Portfolio of Horse Paintings because it isn't actually a book.) This is most likely the reason 15 is assumed to be correct number by many reference sources. The titles published through other companies have always been lesser known works. Rondelet (talk) 21:41, 17 February 2015 (UTC)

The Illustrated Marguerite Henry
There seems to be some confusion about the book, The Illustrated Marguerite Henry. I'm not surprised because the title is so ambiguous it would be difficult to determine exactly what it's about. It was not the title the author wanted. She wanted to call it To My Artists, With Love, which makes perfect sense, but unfortunately she was overruled by her publisher. The book is an overview of her four main illustrators: Wesley Dennis, Robert Lougheed, Lynd Ward and Rich Rudish. She writes about each man with many color examples of their illustrations throughout. The written material is all new, but the illustrations are not. It is a lovely book. Rondelet (talk) 20:36, 14 February 2015 (UTC)


 * illustrated biography of illustrators, in a few words. The Library of Congress catalog provides no Summary, nor any linked Publisher description, but its Subject headings --all subheadings to "Juvenile literature"-- clearly support that comment. Momentarily I will annotate that Works listing. --P64 (talk) 18:43, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

Brown Sunshine, her last book
"Henry finished her last book, Brown Sunshine of Sawdust Valley, just before her death."

That line is old here, as we have revised preceding and following text. The first edition of Brown Sunshine was published 15 months before Henry died. Kirkus does not specify in its online archive the bimonthly issue in which its review appeared but it does give publication date September 1, 1996, for the novel. Goodreads reports the same "first published" date concerning the May 1, 1998, paperback edition. Momentarily I will change our old prose and also add the specific publ date to our list of works.

--P64 (talk) 18:32, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

Kirkus Reviews

 * relocated with modification to stand alone, in preparation for deletion of sections 1.3 to 1.6 -P64 2015-02-17 15:50

The online archive of Kirkus Reviews contains as many as 25 contemporary reviews of books by Marguerite Henry certainly including at least 9 starred reviews. (The Kirkus search results run 12 per page and may include some duplicates.) Nine starred reviews among the hits:
 * Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin (1947) #
 * Misty of Chincoteague (1947) #
 * Little-or-Nothing from Nottingham (1949) #
 * Sea Star, Orphan of Chincoteague (1949) #
 * Born To Trot (1950) #
 * Album of Horses (1951) #
 * Black Gold (1957) #
 * Muley-Ears, Nobody's Dog (1959) #
 * Guadenzia, Pride of the Palio (1960) #

There seems to be no review of Stormy, Misty's Foal --the third Misty novel-- and that for Misty's Twilight is strongly negative. See Misty of Chincoteague.

--P64 (talk) 02:54, 14 February 2015 (UTC)

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