Marguerite Henry Bibliography 1
Justin Morgan Had a Horse
1945, Chicago, Wilcox & Follett (illustrated by Wesley Dennis)
This is the story of the singing teacher, Justin Morgan, and a little nondescript colt he took as part payment (along with another horse) of a debt owed to him. The colt, named Little Bub by Henry (but Figure according to the Morgan Horse Society) grew to become the foundation sire of the Morgan horse breed. The unlikely colt proved to be a faster trotter, stronger draft horse and faster race horse than anything matched against him, despite his small size of only about 14 hands. All his foals resembled him no matter what they were bred from.
His value wasn't realized until after his death around age 30 when he was kicked by another horse and left unattended in cruel winter weather. Even today, the Morgan is one of the outstanding American breeds and the only one with a single foundation sire. The breed, of course, took its name from Justin Morgan, the singing teacher, and Figure was always referred to as "the Morgan horse." The cover illustration is a picture of Justin Morgan, the man, and Little Bub, the colt.
There is a Walt Disney fillm (Justin Morgan Had A Horse) which does not follow the book, but still has plenty of good horse action in it! [Info by Fran Fignar]
Other info:
American Morgan Horse Association
The Little Fellow
1945, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York, illus Diana Thorne
Second edition: Rand, McNally & Company, New York, 1973, illus Rich Rudish
Reprinted
in paperback
This, Marguerite Henry’s first pony story, is long out of print in this edition and is now considered "politically incorrect". It's a cute story about Chip, a thoroughbred foal, who is the pet of his owner and his family until Strawberry, a younger foal, is born and Chip no longer gets the prized sugar lump. Jealous of Strawberry, Chip eventually learns they really can be good friends when he has to rely on the young Strawberry to help him swat flies. Obviously, just a children's fictional tale. The drawings are lovely. Diana Thorne, best known for her dog illustrations, does a good job in this one except the text states Chip has a white star and all the illustrations picture him with a long white blaze.
The reason this book went out of print is that the groom is an African American named "Whitey" who talks in typical Negro slang. Here's a sample: "He (Whitey) was exactly the same color as Chocolate (Chip's mother), but still everyone called him Whitey. Soon Whitey's face appeared over the top of the stall.
"Mawnin', Miz Choclit," he grinned. "Lan' sakes! Dat foal ob yo's is growin' jes' lak a weed. Fack is, he's most nigh growed up. An a thororbred ef I evah seed one! De white folks gwine be mighty proud o' yo' baby."
The second edition has almost identical text except now Chip does have a blaze, not a star, and the groom is a white man named Dooley who has a slightly different conversation with Chocolate and Chip as he takes them to pasture.
I love Rich Rudish's art work. He does magnificent horse illustrations! The cover illustration is a picture of Chip, the foal, resting in a straw filled stall. [Info by Fran Fignar]
Misty of Chincoteague
Rand McNally & Company, NY, 1947, illustrated by Wesley Dennis
Collins, London, 1961, illus Wesley Dennis, 173 pp.
The first in the Misty series, this tells the story of the Beebe children, Paul and Maureen, and the pony penning which takes place each year when the ponies, who live on the island of Assateague, are rounded up and driven to the neighbouring island of Chincoteague. The ponies are rounded up and then auctioned, and thanks to Marguerite Henry’s book, the event is now a big attraction.
In Misty, the children long for a pony of their own. They follow the wild mare Phantom, who has a foal, Misty. They rescue Phantom but have to let her go when she cannot settle. Misty, however, becomes the foundation of a line of ponies kept by the Beebes.
The book won a Newbery prize (Newbery being the American equivalent of the Carnegie prize: awarded by librarians). It is beautifully illustrated by Wesley Dennis.
Other editions
Misty of Chincoteague
Rand McNally & Company, NY., n.d., BCE, 157 pp.
This is a rather hard-
There
have been several paperback editions: the one to the left is the Armada Lions paperback.
Left -
Below:: internal illustrations
Left -
Right -
Far right -
Below -
Other editions
Left -
Right -
King of the Wind
Rand McNally & Company, 1948, illus Wesley Dennis
This book is the story of the Godolphin Arabian, Sham, one of the foundation stallions of the Thoroughbred. It takes him from his difficult birth in Tunisia through to his eventual acceptance as an exceptional stallion, accompanied throughout by his Tunisian horseboy, Agba.
How much of the book is actually historical fact is difficult to say (there doesn’t
seem to be any evidence for Sham’s time as a baker’s horse in Paris, for instance)
but Marguerite Henry tells a wonderfully absorbing story, and oh -
A film was made of the book, though as it was released at the time of the Gulf War it got little publicity.
Links:
A little more about the film
Rand Mcnally, Chicago, 1950, illus Wesley Dennis
Another historical novel, this is the story of Benjamin Franklin White, a Standardbred harness race trainer who won the Hambletonian (THE race for standardbred trotting horses) four times; his son, Gibson White, and the Standardbred race mare, Rosalind. Gibson White wants badly to follow in his father's footsteps as a trainer and driver of racing Standardbreds but unfortunately, ends up in a sanitorium with an illness (I assume, tuberculosis, though the book doesn't state this defintely) due to a run-
Rosalind becomes a great race mare, setting the trotting record of 1:56 3/4 for a mile and 1:58 1/4 in double harness with the champion trotter, Greyhound. She was also a successful brood mare when retired from racing. At the time this book was written, her record had not been broken, though it has probably been surpassed many times now. The races themselves took place in the late 1930s, with the record with Greyhound being set in 1939. Along with the story of Rosalind and her connections, Marguerite Henry works in the story of One Man’s Horse through Gibson White finding an old book while he is in hospital, telling the tale. It is the story of William Rysdyk, the farmer who purchased an unlikely stallion in the 1840's which he named Rysdyk's Hambletonian and which became the foundation sire of the Standardbred breed.
The cover illustration shows Rosalind coming down the stretch at full racing trot.
[Info by Fran Fignar]
Sea Star
Rand Mcnally, Chicago, 1949, illus Wesley Dennis
When Marguerite Henry returned to Chincoteague prior to work on filming the MISTY movie, she had no intention of writing another story. However, in the process of purchasing the original Misty and having her shipped to her home, Paul and Maureen found an orphaned colt and its dead mother on the beach and brought the colt home: a chestnut with a crooked star which they named Sea Star. This book covers the shipping of Misty away from Chincoteague and the struggles of Paul and Maureen to raise the young orphan. Since Sea Star is too young to eat on his own, they work to find a nurse mare for the baby that will be willing to adopt the youngster and, of course, they succeed and Sea Star and his new mother join the Beebe family. Later editions of this book did not have all the full color drawings and some were only in black & white. Paperback editions were only black & white. The cover illustration was of the young colt, Sea Star, on the beach with the ocean behind him.
[Info by Fran Fignar]
Album of Horses
Rand Mcnally, Chicago, 1951, illus Wesley Dennis
