Michael Patrick Hearn at The Washington Post:
The story behind the story of “The Velveteen Rabbit” is itself a kind of fairy tale. Much of it was revealed to me during an interview I did with Margery’s daughter, Pamela Bianco, in 1979. Pamela, born in London in 1906, was an art prodigy, and by the tender age of 12, was one of the most famous children in the world. She was 62 when I met her and working in relative obscurity, as she had done for much of her adult life. During our lengthy conversation, she described the evolution of “The Velveteen Rabbit” and her crucial part in its inception. Pamela was the most childlike person I have ever met. That may well be because her childhood was taken from her. I have never quite forgotten her.
Pamela began drawing at about age 4 — not the usual formless doodles of little kids but remarkably sophisticated faces and figures. She sketched rabbits and guinea pigs and fairies and angels and little girls.
more here.