About the author
Laura Nelson Baker (1911–2003) was born in Iowa, and studied at the University of Minnesota from 1929 to 1931. After university, she worked as a journalist, and then as the supervisor of the manuscript reading room at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley until 1957. Her writing career then took off, and she became a full time writer. She wrote several children’s books, and also wrote some with the poet and children’s author Adrien Stoutenberg, with whom she lived.
Finding the books
Both books are easy to find in the US, and are not too expensive. Neither book was published in the UK.
Links and sources
Terri A. Wear: Horse Stories, an Annotated Bibliography, Scarecrow Press, 1987
Laura Nelson’s papers are in the University of Minnesota Children’s Literature Research collections
Obituary in the Star Tribune
Wikipedia on Adrien Stoutenberg
Many thanks to Lisa Catz for the photograph.
Bibliography (horse books only)
The Dahlbe Family Horse
Dial, 1964, 117 pp, illus Paul E Kennedy
Our Birdie is the Dahlbe family’s work horse, who has been with them for years. Laura is worried that Birdie will be got rid of if the family get a new-fangled automobile.
Cowboy Pete
Lippincott, Philadelphia & New York, 1968, 127 pp
Charles and his family get an odd Christmas present from a stranger: a spotted horse. The local sheriff thinks the horse might be stolen. Cowboy Pete teaches Charles to ride on the horse.