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Justin Morgan Had a Horse

Marguerite Henry,

Wesley Dennis (Illustrator)

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Dec 19, 2022 Werner rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: childrens, historical-fiction

Horse-themed fiction and nonfiction, written primarily for young readers, was the staple literary output from the pen of prolific (with ultimately 59 books to her credit!) 20th-century American writer Marguerite Henry. While not especially deep, her works are well-written, and can also interest adults, especially those with a particular interest in and fondness for horses. That describes my wife; so we've previously read three of her other books together, as we just did this one (though I've onl Horse-themed fiction and nonfiction, written primarily for young readers, was the staple literary output from the pen of prolific (with ultimately 59 books to her credit!) 20th-century American writer Marguerite Henry. While not especially deep, her works are well-written, and can also interest adults, especially those with a particular interest in and fondness for horses. That describes my wife; so we've previously read three of her other books together, as we just did this one (though I've only ever reviewed one of the others, the nonfiction Mustang: Wild Spirit of the West).

Here, Henry's subject is the "foundation sire" of what would become one of the earliest distinctively American breeds of horses, the Morgan horse (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_... ). This horse's name is given here as Lil' Bub, but was actually Figure, born in 1789 in West Springfield, Massachusetts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure_... . He really was given as a payment of a debt to Vermont schoolmaster and music teacher/composer Justin Morgan (d. 1798); who seems to be depicted in fairly true-to-life fashion here. But despite the author's lengthy list of acknowledgements for help with her research, and her page and a half of listed works consulted (a number of which are just for general background of life in late 18th and early 19th century New England), she took considerable liberties with historical events and dates. Some events depicted here actually happened (though with some differences), but some definitely did not; and most importantly, young protagonist Joel Goss, who's apparently about 9-10 years old when he meets Lil' Bub and who becomes his trainer and lifelong friend, was invented out of whole cloth. (Figure was eventually owned by a Col. John Goss and later by his brother David; and one of Henry's informants, a Fannie S. Goss, is described as "granddaughter of Joel Goss." But a woman who gave information on family lore to a writer in ca. 1945 would hardly have been just two generations removed from Figure's time, so that Joel Goss would have been a descendant of John or David.) As historical fiction, this book's credentials for the "historical" part of that term are definitely on the low end of the spectrum; and as a fan of historical accuracy in this genre, I consider that a serious flaw.

At just 170 pages of text, this is a quick read (or would be if read more continuously than I was able to do). It's really an even quicker read than the page count implies, because it includes a large number of black-and-white illustrations by artist Wesley Dennis, who collaborated with Henry for the first time here and would go on to illustrate many more of her titles, over a 20-year period. (These drawings are apt and well done; they genuinely do enhance the text.) Going into the book, I expected a rather dull read, but the plot actually has a good deal of incident and dramatic tension, which held my interest. In fairness, I did enjoy it --but I appreciate it a lot less, and find it much less educational, than I did before I started to research the background. ...more

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