author
Harper Williams
Best known today as the pen name used on some editions of The Thing in the Woods, this author is more widely remembered as Margery Williams, creator of The Velveteen Rabbit. Her work could move easily between eerie fiction and tender children's stories, which makes her career especially memorable.
1 Audiobook
The thing in the woods
by Harper Williams
About the author
Harper Williams was a pseudonym used by Margery Williams, the English-American writer best known for The Velveteen Rabbit. Early editions and later reprints of The Thing in the Woods have been published under the name Harper Williams, and reliable catalog and reference sources connect that name to Margery Williams Bianco.
Born in London in 1881, Margery Williams built a long writing career and became most famous for her children's books. Her best-known work, The Velveteen Rabbit (published in 1922), has remained a classic for generations of readers.
The Harper Williams name is especially interesting because it points to a different side of her writing: darker, more atmospheric fiction. That contrast gives this byline a special place in early 20th-century literature, linking a beloved children's author with a genuinely uncanny tale.