Beatty, Hetty Burlingame

American Heatty Burlingame Beatty (1907-1971) was an author and illustrator of children's books, as well as a sculptor. She wrote and illustrated fourteen books from 1947 to 1968.

Hetty Burlingame Beatty was born on October 8, 1907, in New Canaan, Connecticut, the daughter of Robert C. and Jean (Burlingame) Beatty. She attended the Boston Museum School from 1924-1929, and the University of Maryland from 1960-1963 through extension courses given in Bermuda. On October 11, 1959, she married Lewis F. Whitney, also an artist.

A trained sculptor, Beatty's works were exhibited nationally and won a number of awards. She was given the Mrs. David Hunt Scholarship in Sculpture; the second prize at the International Exhibition of Horses in Sculpture in New York; and a one-woman show of her sculpture and drawings at the Worcester Art Museum in 1941.

Beatty wrote and illustrated fourteen books and contributed to magazines. Her books include Topsy (1947), Little Wild Horse (1949), Little Owl Indian (1951), Bronto (1952), Saint Francis and the Wolf (1953), Droopy (1954), Thumps (1955), Bucking Horse (1957), Voyage of the Sea Wind (1959), Blitz (1961), Moorland Pony (1961), Trumper (1963), Bryn (1965), and Rebel, the Reluctant Racehorse (1968).

Beatty once commented to Contemporary Authors, "I started out as a sculptor and gradually shifted over to the field of writing, becoming so absorbed in it that I devote nearly all my time to it now, along with illustration of most of my own books for children.

"I have lived for two years in Italy, 1929-1931, and have since traveled a good deal in Europe, North Africa, and the Near East, as well as in the United States. I speak French and Italian, after a fashion. Horses, gardening, and square dancing are among my special interests, and I love to plan and build houses. I designed our house in Bermuda, where my husband and I spend the winters.

"I am primarily interested in writing for children, but have become increasingly interested in adult non-fiction. While I am busily writing, my husband is equally busy in his work of handwrought sculpture in lead and other things in pewter, copper, brass, and silver. He founded The Pewter Shop in Rockport, Massachusetts, thirty years ago and was long associated with it."

Hetty Burlingame Beatty died on August 20, 1971.

(Source: Gale Literary Databases. "Hetty Burlingame Beatty." Contemporary Authors. 28 October 2003. 30 June 2005.