Velveteen rabbit

Margery Williams

Was an English/American author, and the author of the Velveteen Rabbit..

Born in London, July 22, 1881, the second daughter of a noted barrister Robert Williams, she said of her father he was deeply loving and caring, and encouraged her to read and use her imagination…

When Marqery was seven, her father passed away suddenly which was a life-changing event, which would affect all of her future creativity, the undertones of sadness and themes of loss flow through her children’s books Margery Williams always maintained that hearts, acquire, greater humanity through pain and adversity. She wrote life is a constant source of change. This is how we grow.

In 1890 Margery moved to the US with her family. Her ambition to make a living at being an author, propelled her at the age of 19 to move back to London England, in 1901 to submit her first novel, which was published in 1902. Her next few novels were geared towards an adult audience, and did not do well. While visiting her publisher, she met Francesco Bianco in Italian living in London. They were married in 1904 and became parents. Their daughter Pamela, illustrated some of her mothers books, at the age of 11 Pamela had a showing in an art gallery. Her daughter Pamela was a renowned child artist. in 1907 the family left England, heading for Paris where Margery’s husband was to head Brentanos bookstore. They later settled in Turin Italy, and in 1914, Francesco joined the Italian army. While Margery stayed home with the children, where she gained spirituality and inspiration from poet Walter de la mar, she considered him her mentor. She felt he understood the mindset of children.

In 1914, Marjorie wrote a horror novel, called The Things in the woods.. under the pseudonym of Harper Williams…

After the end of the war in 1918, postwar, Europe consisted of hunger and deprivation which became a problem and Margery and her family moved back to the US living in Greenwich Village, New York, in 1921…

The Velveteen Rabbit or How Toys Became Real was Margery’s first American work, and her most famous with the inspiration of her children and their imagination, and the mysticism of her mentor Walter de Lamar…

Velveteen Rabbit… this is a blog, and to make a long story short, I will just give a short synopsis of the story. The Velveteen Rabbit is the story of a stuffed rabbit sewn from velvet and given as a Christmas present to a small boy, the boy plays with his other toys and forgets about the velvet rabbit, the more modern mechanical toys took president over the velvet rabbit. The oldest and wisest toy in the nursery the skin horse, which was owned by the boy’s uncle, told the rabbit he could become real by the love of the boy, when a child loves you for a long, long time.

After time the boy fell in love with the rabbit, the boy contracted scarlet fever, and the rabbit sits with him all night. The doctor orders that all toys, and clothing to be disinfected and burned, because scarlet fever was very contagious.

The rabbit is left outside to be burned the next day, the rabbit cried a real tear as he reflects on his life with the boy, tears drop to the ground and into a flower, a fairy appears, and steps out of the flower and comforts the rabbit, she is the magical nursery fairy, because he is real to the boy and the boy loves him, the fairy turns him into a real rabbit. The fairy returns him to the forest with the real rabbits. He returns to the boy and the boy sees the resemblance of his beloved, velveteen rabbit.

Margery Williams used her traits of sentimentality and sadness, as well as death, as she said, hearts acquire great humanity through pain and adversity…

This is one of my favorite children’s books, I have read it to my children and my grandchildren, since Easter is upon us this along with Peter Rabbit are probably two of the most popular books given at Easter 🐰