Marguerite Henry
When Marguerite was 11 years old, she entered a magazine competition asking for articles from children about the four seasons. Marguerite wrote "Hide-and-Seek in Autumn Leaves". The article was published and she received $12, a considerable amount in today's terms.
Growing up, Marguerite’s favourite books were biographies, mysteries, and the Western adventures by Zane Grey. In college, she studied English with plans to become a teacher but became a writer instead. After marrying Sidney Henry, she continued writing for magazines and then began writing children's books. She wrote 58 books in all, her stories always centered around animals, most often based on real horses.
Her book, 'Justin Morgan Had a Horse', won a prize as a Newberry Honor Book, while a later book, 'King of the Wind', won the Newberry Medal. After a long and successful career, Marguerite Henry died in 1997 at her home in Rancho Santa Fe, California, aged 95.
Author's Comment: It is exciting to me that no matter how much machinery replaces the horse, the work it can do is still measured in horsepower...even in the new age. And although a riding horse often weighs half a ton and a big drafter a full ton, either can be led about by a piece of string if he has been wisely trained. This to me is a constant source of wonder and challenge.
[This quote was from an article about Henry published in the Washington Post on November 28, 1997, in response to a query about her drive to write about horses.]
Nationality: American