Author of The Month: Marguerite Henry
Perhaps one of the most famous authors when it comes to equine fiction, Marguerite Henry has written over fifty books for horse lovers and wrote the popular Misty of Chincoteague collection, as well as King of the Wind, Justin Morgan Had a Horse, Brighty of Grand Canyon, Mustang: Wild Spirit of the West, and many others.
Marguerite’s unique writing style and storytelling abilities are one of a kind. Which is why today we are not only going to dive a little deeper into how this amazing author got her start, but also how you as a writer can learn from reading her books to improve your writing voice as well.
The First Inklings:
Marguerite was born April 13, 1902 as the youngest of five Breithaupt children in Wisconsin. Her love of reading, writing, and animals was nurtured from a young age, especially after she was bed-ridden with rheumatic fever at the age of six and forced to stay inside.
When she was seven, she was given a writing desk for Christmas, and thus the love of writing was born. At the age of eleven, she was paid $12 (about $250 today) for a piece of writing about fall that was published in a magazine.
She became an English teacher and married Sidney Henry, all the while still writing. Her first book was a children’s picture story titled Auno and Tauno: A Story of Finland and was published in 1940. Her first published horse novel was Justin Morgan had a Horse, a story about the origin of the Morgan horse breed, in 1945.
It was so popular it became a runner-up for the Newbury Medal. Inspired by the success of this book, she wrote Misty of Chincoteague in 1947 and quickly gained in fame. The real Misty was actually bought by Marguerite and she traveled around the US with little Misty in tow. Once again, she was a runner-up for the Newbury.
King of the Wind, inspired by the shipment of Arabians from the Spanish Riding School, was published in 1948 and Marguerite finally gained the much-awaited Newbury.
Several more books followed; Seastar, Orphan of Chincoteague (1953), Born to Trot (1950), Album of Horses (1951), Brighty of the Grand Canyon (1953), Black Gold (1957), 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), San Domingo, the Medicine Hat Stallion, (1972) Our First Pony (1984), Misty’s Twilight (1992), and Brown Sunshine of Sawdust Valley (1996).
Marguerite died after several strokes on November 26, 1997, at the age of ninety five. The world lost a beloved equine and historical fiction author.
What We can Learn From the Writing Style:
Marguerite was an amazing writer of description: its what made her books so realistic. By using effective description, Marguerite was able to take us to eighteenth century Vermont, seventeenth century Middle East, the island of Chincoteague to the Wild West.
Her equine characters have a mind of their own. The most prominent would perhaps be Misty. At times in the books, the horse almost seems to talk herself. But Marguerite actually owned the real Misty, so she was able to draw from real life and then portray that in the fictional Misty.
I currently own Misty of Chincoteague, Stormy, Misty’s Foal, Justin Morgan had a Horse, King of the Wind, and Sea Star, Orphan of Chincoteague as well as having read Mustang, Wild Spirit of the West and Brown Sunshine of Sawdust Valley. But the most prominent scene that sticks in my mind is the race in Misty of Chincoteague. And not because I watched the movie.
I always remember the race as one of the first things when the book comes to mind, because Henry tells it from Maureen’s perspective. She is imagining she is flying alongside her brother Paul as he rides the Phantom. The description and emotion in this moment is so well written that you as the reader feels like you’re standing right next to Maureen. Good books, in my opinion, give the reader a mental movie. Great books make the reader feel like they are living the story themselves.
The second most prominent scene would be from Sea Star, Orphan of Chincoteague, when Misty leaves to tour around the U.S. and be shown to children who don’t have access to ponies. I don’t cry very much at all with books, but I cried a little, because of the sorrow that Paul and Maureen felt. I could feel it too.
The second thing we can take from Marguerite Henry’s writing is her dialogue. Her dialogue always fits in wonderfully with the setting! From the Middle Eastern royalty to Grandpa Beebe, her dialogue is so life-like you can hear the accents. Again, Misty takes the cake for the best dialogue, but as we said before, Marguerite was able to be in Chincoteague and meet the real Paul, Maureen, and Beebe family.
So how do you use what you read in the Marguerite Henry books in your own writing? Well, it’s something like this. Open up a blank document on your writing software or grab a blank page in a notebook, and read a favored passage. Then, using another scene, try to copy the style. Warning: this is a practice exercise. Plagiarism and copyright are very delicate things to mess with, so while this is excellent to improve your own writing style, I wouldn’t recommend trying to publish it.
Try to change up the scene. For me, the scene where the first Chincoteague ponies landed on the island became the basis for a flash fiction piece about a mustang stallion evading horse catchers. If you wanted to write based off of the race, you could do a steeplechase in England or a rider in the Tevis Cup.
Conclusion:
Marguerite Henry is truly in a class of her own when it comes to writing fiction. From Misty to Brighty, Sham to Domingo, every single one of her equine characters resonates with the reader. The settings are so vivid, you can’t help but feel as if you’re inside the book yourself. Most importantly, Henry knowns how to get into the mind of the horse and tell the story in a way that truly makes the equine characters shine. Henry is one of my favorite authors, and I hope that after reading this article, you’ve learned a little more about one of the greatest equine fiction authors of all time.