Tips to Write Like Marguerite Henry

Over the past two years I’ve studied the life and work of Marguerite Henry, the Newbery-winning author who wrote dozens of horse books I cherished as a horse crazy girl. The writer born April 13, 1902 in Milwaukee, penned Misty of Chincoteague, Stormy, Misty’s Foal, Sea Star, Justin Morgan Had a Horse, and more titles in the canon of horse books for horse lovers.

(Many thanks to the team stewarding the Marguerite Henry Collection of the University of Minnesota Libraries, Kerlan Collection of Children’s Literature. It is with their permission photos from the archive are posted.)

Researching How to Write Like Marguerite Henry

I’ve spent days poring over handwritten manuscripts, personal letters, fan mail, photographs, and artifacts archived at the University of Minnesota’s Kerlan Collection, home to the Marguerite Henry Papers. It was a thrill to see Marguerite’s flowing cursive in the margins of manuscripts and even touch her Newbery Medal for King of the Wind!

Read Voraciously

Marguerite devoured books as a little girl, which is not surprising since her parents were both avid readers. Her father owned a Milwaukee printing business, so his livelihood was literally based on words. Her mother read women’s magazines. As a little girl, Marguerite spent some Saturdays at the printers and would pretend she was working there too. As she neared adolescence, the future horse book author unfortunately suffered bouts of rheumatic fever, which meant she stayed home from school for long stretches. During that era, she read and read and read.

Flash forward to her teen years and Marguerite landed her first job at the local library as a book mender. You can read more about an accident on roller skates that literally propelled her to getting the library position in my soon-to-be-released title Marguerite, Misty and Me.

While researching for Marguerite, Misty and Me, I met a man who used to ride the real Misty of Chincoteague three days a week after school while Marguerite rode her Morgan horse Friday. I asked him if he was aware if Marguerite had hobbies and he said her house had books all over the place and she was always working. He could not confirm hobbies, but I did find someone on social media who said her grandmother played bridge with Marguerite and I know at one point she was a member of a garden club. But I digress.

Befriend Librarians and Visit Libraries

As I mentioned earlier, Marguerite’s first job was at her local library. This job offer was extended to her by a librarian she admired named Miss Ovitz. In a mini-autobiography that from the 1988 author anthology Something About the Author, it was clear Marguerite idolized Miss Ovitz, writing, “I worshipped Miss Ovitz passionately and considered her Queen of the Realm of Books.”

In the early 1950s, during the heyday of Marguerite’s author career, a librarian, Mildred Lathrop, from Gail Borden Library in Elgin, Illinois (the library I grew up checking out the Marguerite Henry books from!) gave Marguerite a Sunset magazine article about a wild and shaggy burro who lived in the Grand Canyon. His name was Bright Angel, and he had a mind of his own.

Mildred kept finding and sharing with Marguerite, “vivid descriptions of Brighty’s trail, that zigzagged precipitously up and down the walls of the canyon.” (Something About the Author) The seed of a story idea not only was planted, but later sprouted into one of Marguerite’s most beloved titles: Brighty of the Grand Canyon. (Marguerite and her husband Sidney rode mules into the Grand Canyon–read more in my book. 🙂

In a 1967 speech Marguerite delivered at an award banquet which later was printed in the educational journal Elementary English, Marguerite said, “My happiest working hours are spent in libraries. . . making my own kind of honey. Always, a miracle comes to pass. What was once merely a dot on a map becomes a city with smells and sounds and kindred souls. What was once only a name becomes flesh and blood. Wherever I am—in Flagstaff, Arizona, in Kanab, Utah—wherever—a library awaits my coming as surely as the flower awaits a bee.”

Follow Your Curiosity

As I’ve gotten to know Marguerite Henry through reading her personal papers and speaking to people who knew her, what has impressed me repeatedly is her intense level of curiosity. Her desire to discover and learn allowed her to sculpt her newly-aquired knowledge and experiences into stories that live on in readers’ imaginations long after the last page is turned.

For example, when she first heard about the annual pony swim from Assateague to Chincoteague Island, she hightailed it from Chicagoland, where she lived, to the islands off the coast of Virginia. The book Misty of Chincoteague was born.

When she learned about the dangerous and spectacular horse race held annually in the piazza of Siena, Italy, she hopped on a plane and spent weeks in Tuscany. Nevermind she did not speak Italian. I almost fell out of my chair when I read that as she researched for The Wildest Horse Race in the World, she was able to speak with the Pope! lol (I would love to know how she swung that!)

(For more backstory on Marguerite’s research and travels, snag a copy of my new memoir debuting July 2023, Marguerite, Misty and Me: a Horse Girl’s Hunt for the Hidden History of Marguerite Henry and her Chincoteague Pony.)

Jot Down Phrases Anywhere Like Marguerite Henry Did

While sitting in the stillness of the Elmer Anderson Library’s reading room, diving into the Kerlan Collection’s Marguerite Henry archives, I smiled as I came across all the interesting places where Marguerite jotted down her ideas. Marguerite Henry scribbled the scene for Stormy’s birth in penciled phrases on the back of the draft pages from The Wildest Horse Race in the World,.

I found writing on the back of a piece of cardboard used to keep a new tablecloth in a rigid rectangular shape. I thought that was hilarious.

I noticed she used the back, blank sides of a stack of 1947 L. Breithaupt Printing Co. calendar pages for notes. Opposite September’s orange page, a black crayon heralds “BOWED TENDON” and in blue ink cursive, “a slight protuberance” elaborates on the lameness.

Write Encouraging Letters

In conclusion, the most tender writing by Marguerite I encountered while discovering her hidden history was responses to countless fan letters. One such letter written by a young adult fan told Marguerite how she worked different jobs and saved up for a horse, and she purchased a dreamy Connemara mare. In the note, the young horse lover asked Marguerite to write a book about a girl who was the only one in her area who rode sidesaddle.

The author replied with a warm, six-paragraph letter that told her fan about a girl in Illinois Marguerite knew who rode a Connemara pony sidesaddle. “Maybe she’s the little girl who will one day write the book that you dream of. Or maybe it is YOU!”

Marguerite Henry’s storytelling talent lives on in the body of work she left behind. As a fan and fellow writer, I hope to emulate her to a small degree, composing horse stories that uplift and entertain. Thanks for reading!

If you can’t get enough of Misty of Chincoteague and Marguerite Henry, you will love Marguerite, Misty and Me: a Horse Girl’s Hunt for the Hidden History of Marguerite Henry and her Chincoteague Pony now available for pre-order.

Leave a Comment: Do you have a favorite Marguerite Henry book? What are some horse books you enjoyed as a kid?