Montclair woman sheds light on popular children's author's private life in new biography

Maya Linder loves to watch as the wild horses of Assateague Island off the shores of Maryland and Virginia are rounded up and driven into the water so they can swim during slack tide, heads straining forward, salt water dancing in their manes, to the nearby island of Chincoteague for auctioning.

“The horses were calm,” Linder, a sixth-grader in Hoboken, recalls of past family visits to the annual Pony Penning Days hosted by the islands each July. “One horse had a bird on its back, but didn’t care.”

The scene, as brief at 5-10 minutes as it is thrilling, is the same one that moved Lettie Teague, an author and award-winning wine columnist for "The Wall Street Journal," as a child — when she read a depiction of the ceremony in the bestselling book "Misty of Chincoteague" by Marguerite Henry. Teague grew up in Indiana, Ohio, and North Carolina, pining for her own horse for years. Her mother encouraged her love of horses in part by buying her Henry’s books.

“The one that really resonated for me was Henry’s 'Born to Trot,'” says Teague, who lives in Montclair with her husband. The true story is about a young boy with tuberculosis whose father, a famous harness racer and trainer, gives him a filly to help him recover.

Four years ago, Teague began looking for information on Henry’s life. She was shocked to find that no one had written Henry’s biography. “Henry wrote 59 books, and so many of them were bestsellers,” she says. “How isit possible that this woman who did so much and so memorably, who resonated so deeply with readers, and whose 1947 book, 'Misty of Chincoteague,' still sells 50,000 copies a year, does not have a biography?”

With the encouragement of her agent, Alice Martell, Teague traveled to the University of Minnesota, where Henry’s papers are housed, and Wayne, Illinois, where Henry spent most of her life. The trips left Teague inspired, but hesitant. “I thought, this is crazy, I’m a wine columnist, I write wine books,” says Teague. “Theoretically, I haveno right to write a biography of a children’s author, but on the other hand, why not?”

Martell, Teague’s agent, was supportive. “I’m always happy when clients do something completely different,” she says. Teague took the leap, and on May 21, her book "Dear Readers and Riders: The Beloved Books, Faithful Fans, and Hidden Private Life of Marguerite Henry," will be released by Trafalgar Square Books.

Researching and writing Henry’s biography took nearly three years, complicated by the fact that Henry was very private and left little ephemera. She was, however, a diligent researcher. “For 'The White Stallion of Lipizza,' she wrote to a librarian in Vienna to learn about the sound a clock made,” Teague says. “She took multiple trips to Skiatook, Oklahoma, to stand in the fields and see what it felt like to be in the Osage grass.”

Henry, who published books from 1940 until her death in 1997 at age 95, wrote back to every child who sent her a fan letter. “We’re talking tens of thousands of letters over the years, and Henry wrote them without artifice or pandering,” Teague says. Henry, who did not have children of her own, developed real relationships with some of her readers, referring to them as her “book children.”

Writing about two great loves

Teague began riding horses at age 9, about the same time she started writing. “Reading and writing were everything in my life, from when I was a child all the way until now,” she says.

At age 16, while living in Deerfield, Indiana, Teague finally bought herself what she calls “a cheap horse.” “We were city people, and we bought a farm of 12 acres, which of course wasn’t a farm by normal standards,” she says. “Because we had land, we could afford to keep a horse.” It was the first of many horses Teague would ride.

Teague attended Kenyon College and joined the equestrian team. She moved to New York City after graduation and rode at Claremont Riding Academy on the Upper West Side. “It wasn’t until I became the wine columnist for 'The Wall Street Journal' that I began riding seriously again,” she says, buying and leasing several horses and competing in local shows. She gave away her last horse two years ago. “I’m temporarily retired from riding, but not completely,” she says. “There’s another horse in my future.”

Her wine education began during her junior year of college in the unlikely city of Dublin, Ireland, where she attended the School of Irish Studies. “It was sheer luck that I ended up living with Peter Dunn and his family. He’s the director of Mitchell & Son, then the most important wine retailer, wholesaler and importer in Ireland,” Teague says. “He talked about wine the way I talked about books. That’s what fascinated me.”

Back in the U.S, Teague got herself into the wine business, holding a variety of jobs in wholesale and retail sales, marketing, public relations, and restaurants. “I ended up acquiring a lot of really practical wine business experience,” she says. She segued into writing about wine at the now-defunct "Diversion" magazine and became wine editor at "Food & Wine" in 1997.

Beth Kracklauer, the food and drinks editor at "The Wall Street Journal," says Teague’s columns appeal to everyone, from those with deep wine knowledge to those just starting to learn. “She has excellent taste but always looks at the consumer perspective,” Kracklauer says.

Teague has received three James Beard writing awards and was inducted into the Wine Media Hall of Fame in 2015. Previous books include Wine in Words: Some Notes for Better Drinking (Rizzoli, 2015) and Educating Peter: How Anybody Can Become an (Almost) Instant Wine Expert (Scribner, 2007). She was the illustrator and co-author of Fear of Wine: An Introductory Guide to the Grape (Bantam, 1995).

Earlier this year, Teague sponsored a “Dear Marguerite National Essay Contest” for youth members of the Interscholastic Equestrian Association. Riders in grades 4-12 were asked to write on themes related to equestrian life, horse welfare, and historical horse figures. The contest received nearly 300 submissions, and the winners were announced in April.

Teague remains in awe of Henry’s talents. “She melded feeling and facts so consistently, I can’t think of another children’s author who has done that,” Teague says. “Henry was incredibly modest. The only thing that was flashy about her was that she wore crazy hats.”

Teague will be discussing and signing Dear Readers and Writers in the Kid’s Room at Watchung Children’s Bookstore, 44 Fairfield St. in Montclair, on Wednesday, May 22 at 7 p.m.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Author of 'Misty of Chincoteague,' Marguerite Henry, gets biography