People like Margery Williams Bianco

Margery Williams Bianco (22 July 1881 in London, England – 4 September 1944 in New York City, United States) was an English-American author, primarily of popular children's books. A professional writer since the age of nineteen, she achieved lasting fame at forty-one with the 1922 publication of the classic that is her best-known work, The Velveteen Rabbit (1922). She received the Newbery Honor.

A native of London, Margery Winifred Williams was born to successful and accomplished parents. The second daughter of a noted barrister and a renowned classical scholar, she and her sister were encouraged by her father, whom she remembered as a deeply loving and caring parent, to read and use their imaginations. Writing about her childhood many years later, she recalled how vividly her father described characters from various books and the infinite world of knowledge and adventure that lay on the printed page. She noted that the desire to read, which soon transformed into a need to write, was a legacy from her father that would be hers for a lifetime.