Margery Williams (1881–1944)
Author of The Velveteen Rabbit
About the Author
Author Margery Williams was born in London, England on July 22, 1881. She moved to the United States when she was nine-years-old and alternated between living in the United States and England for the rest of her life. She is best known for her thirty children's books, but she also wrote novels for show more adults and young adults. Her most popular works include The Velveteen Rabbit, Poor Cecco: The Wonderful Story of a Wonderful Wooden Dog Who Was the Jolliest Toy in the House Until He Went Out to Explore the World, and The Little Wooden Doll. Her young adult book, Winterbound, was a runner-up for the 1937 Newbery Medal and was retroactively given the Newbery Honor award when it was established in 1971. She died on September 4, 1944 at the age of 63. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Works by Margery Williams
The Velveteen Rabbit (Illustrated): The 1922 Classic Edition with Original Illustrations (2023) 24 copies
The Velveteen Rabbit Coloring Book: A storybook to be colored in, With captions lifted from the original text (1984) 18 copies
The Velveteen Rabbit & Other Animal Adventures (Wordsworth Children's Classics) (2015) 18 copies, 1 review
The Price of Youth 5 copies
The Velveteen Rabbit & I Will Always Be Your Bunny: Classic Stories of Love and Friendship for Children (2020) 5 copies
Writing and Criticism: A Book for Margery Bianco — Contributor — 5 copies
The Late Returning 3 copies
The Velveteen Rabbit Plush Gift Set: The Classic Edition Board Book Plush Stuffed Animal Toy Rabbit Gift Set (2020) 3 copies
Veleteen Rabbit 2 copies
The Velveteen Rabbit 2 copies
Velveteen Rabbit 1 copy
Sense and Sensibility 1 copy
Penny and The White Horse 1 copy
Poor Cecco (2/2 copies) 1 copy
The Five and a Half Club 1 copy
Poor Cecco 1 copy
Green Grows the Garden 1 copy
Harper's Bazar Magazine 1 copy
The Velveteen Rabbit - DVD — Author — 1 copy
Peeps at Great Cities: Paris 1 copy
A street of little shops 1 copy
Mr. Murdle's Large Heart 1 copy
Associated Works
The Illustrated Treasury of Children's Literature, Volumes 1-2 (1955) — Contributor — 523 copies, 4 reviews
The Graphic Canon of Children's Literature: The World's Greatest Kids' Lit as Comics and Visuals (2014) — Contributor — 101 copies, 1 review
Sidsel Longskirt and Solve Suntrap: Two Children of Norway (1935) — Translator — 14 copies, 1 review
Four cents an acre; the story of Louisiana under the French, from "Notre Louisiane" — Translator, some editions — 8 copies
Juniper Farm, "Il était quatre petits enfants" — Translator, some editions — 4 copies
Bruin's Midnight Reader: Strange and Engaging Stories for the Curious (2022) — Contributor — 3 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Williams, Margery
- Other names
- Bianco, Margery Williams
Williams, Margery Winifred
Bianco, Margery
Williams, Harper (pseudonym) - Birthdate
- 1881-07-22
- Date of death
- 1944-09-04
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Convent School, Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania
- Occupations
- children's book author
short story author
novelist
translator
essayist - Awards and honors
- Newbery Honor (1937)
- Relationships
- Bianco, Pamela (daughter)
Williams, Robert (father) - Short biography
- British-born Margery Winifred Williams moved with her parents to the USA in 1890. She became a professional writer at age 19. In 1904, on a visit to her English publisher, she met and married Francisco Bianco, an Italian living in London. The couple went to live in Turin, Italy, for many years. Margery eventually returned with her own family to the USA in 1921. She's best remembered today for The Velveteen Rabbit; or, How Toys Become Real. It became an instant classic and has been adapted many times as theater, radio, television, and animated films. In her final years, she interspersed writing novels for young adults with her children's books, and her daughter Pamela illustrated some of the works. Margery Willams won a Newbery Honor in 1937 for Winterbound.
- Nationality
- UK (birth)
USA (naturalized) - Birthplace
- London, England, UK
- Places of residence
- London, England, UK
New York, New York, USA
Pennsylvania, USA
Turin, Italy - Place of death
- New York, New York, USA
- Map Location
- USA
Members
Reviews
I would be hard pressed to name a more poignant, beautiful book for children. I've not shied away from the fact that I am known to cry while reading a really emotional scene in a book. The Velveteen Rabbit can now be added to that list. The author did a tremendously good job of showing the love a child can have towards their favorite toy and their passionate understanding that their toy is real and the sweet answer to the questions of what happens to the beloved item when the child is too show more old to play with it any longer. The illustrations are simple, colorful, and wonderfully vintage. I can definitely see why this one is a classic. show less
Yet another classic that I recently discovered has slipped past me (or at least, if I ever read it as a child, I have no recollection), Williams' The Velveteen Rabbit is a beautiful book and one that I'm glad to have stumbled across as an adult rather than as a child. It all happened because of a quote:
He said,"You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are show more Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."
This quote came across my Facebook feed the other day, and in discussing the book with a couple of friends, it then occurred to me that I don't think I had ever read it, so bought a copy that weekend. This book resonated far better with my adult self than I think it ever could have as a child, which speaks volumes for the magic of this slim little volume. A happy addition to my library. show less
He said,"You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are show more Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."
This quote came across my Facebook feed the other day, and in discussing the book with a couple of friends, it then occurred to me that I don't think I had ever read it, so bought a copy that weekend. This book resonated far better with my adult self than I think it ever could have as a child, which speaks volumes for the magic of this slim little volume. A happy addition to my library. show less
Oh I wish I'd read this treasure when I was a girl, so I could emulate Miss Gay rather than the more respectable townsfolk.
I suppose nowadays we have the likes of [a:Leo Lionni|32804|Leo Lionni|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1212699342p2/32804.jpg] to teach us the value of creativity and joy, but Margery Williams Bianco predated even the Beatniks, even further the Hippies, by half a century. I have no idea why this isn't universally beloved. Seriously, I'd have loved it as a child, and do show more now.
Thank you Elko library for not culling it and for being willing to loan it to Carson City! Now I've got to try to track down a copy to be ready to share with my (still hypothetical) grandchildren. show less
I suppose nowadays we have the likes of [a:Leo Lionni|32804|Leo Lionni|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1212699342p2/32804.jpg] to teach us the value of creativity and joy, but Margery Williams Bianco predated even the Beatniks, even further the Hippies, by half a century. I have no idea why this isn't universally beloved. Seriously, I'd have loved it as a child, and do show more now.
Thank you Elko library for not culling it and for being willing to loan it to Carson City! Now I've got to try to track down a copy to be ready to share with my (still hypothetical) grandchildren. show less
#564 in our old book database. Not rated. Jan. 19, 1990.
I recall that I didn't much like this book the first time I read it decades ago, but I decided to give it another go when the 100th Anniversary edition turned up on NPR's list of best children's books of 2022 that I'm reading as one of my 2023 goals.
The art for this edition is by Erin Stead, and overall I do prefer her style over the art by William Nicholson in the edition that my family owns, but the muted colors and droopy characters show more radiate moroseness from the get-go and throughout the tale. And while her rabbit is fine, as drawn it doesn't really match the description in the text as to the stuffed animal's form and really doesn't look much different from its first appearance to its supposedly worn look near the end of the story.
The story and its mythology really irritate me, and I ranted to my wife for quite awhile last night after we read the book together. Here's a taste of it. For starters, I'm torn between the Skin Horse being a false prophet of a faux religion of Real created to distract from the actual revelations of the tale's end, or the Skin Horse being John the Baptist to the Velveteen Rabbit's Christ who is risen again to immortality and finally opening the way for all toys to Heaven on Earth. And if there are two levels of Real, are there more? Say, fifteen, perhaps, as in Scientology? Will the Velveteen Rabbit continue to transcend as he tires of immortality on Earth? Will watching all the real rabbits in his life die every nine years as he goes on and on without the sweet release of death push him to a new epiphany of Real (Level 3)? Or will another random fairy/angel just pop up in time to move the story/pilgrimage along? Meanwhile, what about China Dog, the boy's first beloved toy? Did he achieve either level of Real or is he stuck in some limbo? What sins weigh down the soul of the Skin Horse that he is denied the second level of Real? What inherent evil of the modern age prevents mechanical toys from being able to enter the realm of Real? Is Williams a Luddite or simply unable to progress due to crippling obsession with nostalgia?
Or is this all just an attempt to create a parent cover story for throwing away kids' toys? The family pet goes off to live on "a farm in the country" and all the missing toys are now frolicking in the forest with the real animals.
Anyhow, I still don't like this book.
(Another project! I'm trying to read all the picture books and graphic novels on the kids section of NPR's Books We Love 2022.) show less
I recall that I didn't much like this book the first time I read it decades ago, but I decided to give it another go when the 100th Anniversary edition turned up on NPR's list of best children's books of 2022 that I'm reading as one of my 2023 goals.
The art for this edition is by Erin Stead, and overall I do prefer her style over the art by William Nicholson in the edition that my family owns, but the muted colors and droopy characters show more radiate moroseness from the get-go and throughout the tale. And while her rabbit is fine, as drawn it doesn't really match the description in the text as to the stuffed animal's form and really doesn't look much different from its first appearance to its supposedly worn look near the end of the story.
The story and its mythology really irritate me, and I ranted to my wife for quite awhile last night after we read the book together. Here's a taste of it. For starters, I'm torn between the Skin Horse being a false prophet of a faux religion of Real created to distract from the actual revelations of the tale's end, or the Skin Horse being John the Baptist to the Velveteen Rabbit's Christ who is risen again to immortality and finally opening the way for all toys to Heaven on Earth. And if there are two levels of Real, are there more? Say, fifteen, perhaps, as in Scientology? Will the Velveteen Rabbit continue to transcend as he tires of immortality on Earth? Will watching all the real rabbits in his life die every nine years as he goes on and on without the sweet release of death push him to a new epiphany of Real (Level 3)? Or will another random fairy/angel just pop up in time to move the story/pilgrimage along? Meanwhile, what about China Dog, the boy's first beloved toy? Did he achieve either level of Real or is he stuck in some limbo? What sins weigh down the soul of the Skin Horse that he is denied the second level of Real? What inherent evil of the modern age prevents mechanical toys from being able to enter the realm of Real? Is Williams a Luddite or simply unable to progress due to crippling obsession with nostalgia?
Or is this all just an attempt to create a parent cover story for throwing away kids' toys? The family pet goes off to live on "a farm in the country" and all the missing toys are now frolicking in the forest with the real animals.
Anyhow, I still don't like this book.
(Another project! I'm trying to read all the picture books and graphic novels on the kids section of NPR's Books We Love 2022.) show less
Lists
Newbery Adjacent (4)
Favourite Books (1)
Books About Boys (1)
Christmas Books (1)
Reading Rainbow (2)
Sonlight Books (1)
Ambleside Books (2)
Best Young Adult (1)
Five star books (1)
4th Grade Books (1)
1920s (1)
Female Author (1)
Out of Copyright (1)
Awards
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Statistics
- Works
- 96
- Also by
- 31
- Members
- 19,474
- Popularity
- #1,121
- Rating
- 4.2
- Reviews
- 260
- ISBNs
- 471
- Languages
- 16
- Favorited
- 9
