Misty of Chincoteague

Plot

Misty of Chincoteague begins with an account of the wreck of a Spanish galleon on the shores of Assateague Island off the coast of Virginia. The ponies in the hold of the galleon swim to Assateague and become feral as the years and eventually the centuries pass.

The book then tells the story of two orphan children, Paul and Maureen Beebe, who move in with the grandparents after their parents die. Paul and Maureen work to earn money to buy a Chincoteague pony mare named the Phantom, who has escaped the roundup men on Pony Penning Day for the past two years. Paul and Maureen save enough to buy Phantom, and Paul is able to capture her on the roundup because she is slowed down by her new foal, Misty. However, a man from the mainland buys the pair of ponies for his son before Paul and Maureen can give their money to the fire chief. Paul and Maureen are distressed, but they end up being able to buy Phantom and Misty because the original buyer's son won a colt in the yearly raffle and then decided he didn't need three ponies.

Paul and Maureen eventually break the Phantom to ride, and the next year Paul races her on Pony Penning Day. Phantom wins, but the next day becomes distressed when she sees the herd she once belonged to, led by a stallion called Pied Piper, being released to swim back to Assateague. Paul releases Phantom, and she gallops to join Pied Piper and the herd as they return to freedom on their ancestral island. Misty remains behind with Paul and Maureen.

Inspiration for novel

Misty was inspired by a real-life Chincoteague Pony by the same name. The real-life Misty was foaled in domesticity in 1946, on Chincoteague at the Beebe Ranch, not in the wild on Assateague Island as told in the book. As in the book, however, she was in fact sired by a chestnut pinto stallion named Pied Piper, from a smokey-black pinto dam called Phantom. Although these horses also were domesticated in real life, they too provided inspiration to Henry for the wild ponies portrayed in the novel.

Misty was a chestnut and white pinto, whose coloration and markings included a large patch of white on her side shaped much like the United States. Her hoof prints are impressed the cement of the sidewalk outside the Roxy Movie Theatre in Chincoteague.

After being purchased by Marguerite Henry as a weanling in November 1946, and spending her early life at Henry's Wayne, Illinois home, she was later moved back to the Beebe Ranch in Chincoteague in 1957. A goodbye party with over 300 children and 160 adults in attendance was held by Henry in Wayne for Misty when she left for Chincoteague.

Back in Chincoteague, Misty had three foals: "Phantom Wings" in 1960, "Wisp O' Mist" in 1961, and "Stormy", a chestnut pinto filly with a blaze in the shape of a crescent moon on her forehead, in 1962. As of 2015, there were almost 200 known descendants of Misty.

Paul Beebe died in a car accident in 1957 at the age of 21. Clarence Beebe died two months later in 1957 after Paul's accident. Three years later Ida Beebe died in 1960. Misty died in 1972. Her body, and that of her foal Stormy who died in 1993, have been preserved through taxidermy, and can be seen at the Beebe Ranch.

The Misty of Chincoteague Foundation was formed by Marguerite Henry and Rebecca Guisti in 1990, with the two-fold mission of preserving Misty's legacy, and promoting reading by children. Funds were raised to commission a statue of Misty, sculpted by Brian Maughan, to be erected on Chincoteague, which was formally unveiled on July 29, 1997. An identical casting of the Maughan statue was also placed at Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky.

Marguerite Henry's "Misty" series

In the second novel, Sea Star, published only two years after the original, Misty is "sold to be shared with children the country over" and the Beebe children rescue a "tiny orphaned colt" after the Pony Penning.

The third novel, Stormy, Misty's Foal, was published in 1963. It tells of the Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962 on Chincoteague, and the birth of Misty's last foal Stormy. Misty and Stormy had made appearances at theaters and schools in the area to help raise funds for replenishment of the herds on Assateague in the aftermath of the 1962 storm.

The fourth novel, Misty's Twilight, was published after Henry's 90th birthday, and almost 30 years after the third. Kirkus Reviews observed that it was "billed as fiction but more like a fictionalization concerning one of Misty's descendants". It concluded its contemporary review, "this adult-centered narrative about an affluent doctor—whose troubles with her horse are always addressed by hiring yet another trainer—may be authentic, it will be of interest mostly to those who relish every crumb about Misty's family."

50th anniversary release

For the 50th anniversary in 1997 of the original novel, only the month before Henry's death, Simon & Schuster released a diary garnished with quotations from Misty of Chincoteague and new illustrations by Bill Farnsworth (Little Simon, October 1997); ISBN 9780689817694.

Misty's legacy in other literature

Several of the real-life Misty's descendants have been featured in books by other authors, in addition to Henry:

A series of children's books by Misty family pony-breeder Kendy Allen debuted in 2006. The series includes: