In other letters, children poured out their hearts about their longing for a horse or their joy at finally getting a horse or even asking her for training advice for what to do with their horse. This photo of a Marguerite Henry fan atop Misty is my mom’s friend! Some of those messages would go like this: “Hi! We just read Misty of Chincoteague and I really liked it. Some of the Marguerite Henry fan mail letters were hilarious, and you could tell the young letter writer was required to write a letter to an author for a school assignment. While researching at the University of Minnesota’s Kerlan Collection of Children’s Literature, I found letters mailed to Marguerite even after her death.
Bonnie shared with me that Marguerite delighted in receiving fan mail, and even when the author was in her 90s, the letters continued to pour in.
Bonnie grew up reading her horse books, was a huge Marguerite Henry fan and received the thrill of her life when Marguerite tapped her to illustrate Brown Sunshine of Stardust Valley-the book that would become Marguerite’s last title. I landed on one paper indicating Marguerite was out on a research trip and her older sister Gertrude (more on her in Marguerite, Misty and Me) was the stand-in fan mail responder.īonnie Shields, The Tennesee Mule Artist, who now lives in Idaho, was friends with Marguerite. My inference is that Marguerite responded, and that was her way of keeping track. The Newbery-winning author famously known for Misty of Chincoteague, Justin Morgan Had a Horse, King of the Wind, and over 50 more titles, most of them horse books, received mountains of fan mail from children and adults alike.Īs I read countless fan letters sent to the iconic horse book author from the Midwest, many of them had the abbreviation in the margin “ans,” in billowy cursive. While researching through the Marguerite Henry Collection, for my upcoming book Marguerite, Misty and Me ( now available for pre-order), one fact became clear right away: people loved Marguerite.
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