Wesley Dennis, illustrator

Wesley Dennis, 1903-1966, was an illustrator known mostly for his life-like images of horses and animals. You probably have seen his illustrations on Marguerite Henry books,

































or John Steinbeck's The Red Pony,

or Black Beauty by Anna Sewell.

Here are a couple of stories he wrote and illustrated that are still terrific. The stories are genuine but with a sense of humor, and of course, illustrated beautifully:

 We have the Album of Horses book, which I didn't realize was written by Marguerite Henry and illustrated by Wesley Dennis. No wonder I liked it so well.

There are even Breyer horses created for Marguerite Henry/Wesley Dennis books. Here is King of the Wind.

And look: how sweet are Misty and Stormy?       

One last cool thing about Wesley Dennis. He really enjoyed drawing for kids and loved to personally answer his fan mail. It was difficult to keep up, but he knew that kids loved getting mail, so he came up with an idea  to have kids subscribe to a series of postcards that he would illustrate and write, duplicate and send each week. Take a look at these hidden treasures!