During the two years I spent researching for Marguerite, Misty and Me, my biography of Marguerite Henry, the author of my favorite horse books, I read hundreds of documents written by and about her. It was a privilege to hold in my hands manuscripts, postcards, letters, research notes and photographs by such a legendary children's horse book author.
This postcard (in the photo) I read at the Newberry Library in Chicago (no relation to the Newbery Award she won for King of the Wind in 1949), was so fun I have to share it here with my fellow lovers of horse and rider books.
"After the Swim," depicts the wild Chincoteague ponies, the ponies Henry's 1947 title Misty of Chincoteague made famous.
In 1960, Marguerite sent this postcard to Alberita Semrad, a University of Wisconsin-Madison alum who freelanced regularly for the Christian Science Monitor. It was a thank you for "corralling" a number of copies of an article that had appeared about Marguerite.
The price of the stamp was only three cents!
One of the cutest notes I read from the pen of Marguerite Henry was an apology letter to the Rancho Santa Fe California library. When she lived in the San Diego area she had checked out a book at her local library and apparently forgot to return it before the due date. She wrote an apology which the library has in a special Marguerite Henry collection.
Did you ever write fan letters to Marguerite Henry? I didn't, but I wish I had. However, my forthcoming book Marguerite, Misty and Me is essentially a fan letter to Marguerite, my muse.
