About the author
Nan Hayden Agle (1905–2006) spent her early years on the family farm, Nancy’s Fancy. Many of the animals there found their way into her later books. She was inspired by a high school English teacher: inspired to aspire, at any rate, as this particular English teacher was so unimpressed with one of Nan’s poems she threw it in the bin. She studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art, but stopped when marriage and children came along. Once the children were old enough to go to school, she resumed her studies.
Her first book, Three Boys and a Lighthouse, was written in 1951, with a friend, Ellen Wilson. She went on to write over 20 books, two of which have a horse element to them.
Finding the books
Both are easy to find.
Links and sources
Obituary, Baltimore Sun (no longer available to UK)
Nan Hayden Agle on Wikipedia
Nan Hayden Agle’s papers are in the de Grummond collection
Terri Wear: Horse Stories: An Annotated Bibliography
Bibliography (horse books only)
Joe Bean
Seabury Press, New York, 1967, 126 pp, illus Velma Ilsley
Mr Tipper takes Joe into the country, where he is introduced to jousting. Through this, Joe finds something for the old work horse, Marcella, to do in retirement.
Kish’s Colt
Seabury Press, New York, 1968, 63pp, illus Allan Eitzen
Kish hopes that Mina’s colt will be a good and hard-working donkey, but unfortunately Arad is anything but. However, he is the donkey borrowed to carry Jesus into Jerusalem.
