About the author
George Agnew Chamberlain (1879–1976) was born in Brazil, but returned to America to be educated, graduating from Princeton. He wrote 36 books, many of which were turned into films: Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! being notable for providing Marilyn Monroe’s first film experience, though her scenes were short, and shorter still after the cutting room floor had had its way.
Chamberlain was keen on trotting: he wrote a few horse-related titles, and of the four, three involve trotting (the other, Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!, was a comic story about mules). His Phantom Filly benefited from the run of trotting films 20th Century Fox made, as it was turned into Home in Indiana (1944), following Kentucky and Maryland, (neither title written by Chamberlain).
Finding the books
All are reasonably easy to find.
Links and sources
IMDB on George Agnew Chamberlain
More on Armed Services editions – Phantom Filly was issued as one
Home in Indiana
Bibliography (horse books only)
The Phantom Filly
The Bobbs-Merrill Company, New York, 1942, 241 pp
Editions for the Armed Services, 1942
Pocket Books, New York, 1945, 1947, pb
Scudda-hoo! Scudda-hay!
The Bobbs-Merrill Company, New York, 1945, 208 pp.
Grosset & Dunlap, New York, 1946
“The author wrote this book to right a great wrong. Over the radio one day he heard Bing Crosby sing “Swinging on a Star.” The words aroused his ire. A mule, the song proclaimed, was a creature with long funny ears, who kicked at the slightest provocation… both stupid and stubborn. This was sacrilege. He set out to prove it in this story of two proud mules– the handsomest, toughest critters God ever made.””
Overcoat Meeting
A S Barne, New York, 1949, 185 pp.
A Barnes sport novel, involving trotting.
Lord Buff and the Silver Star
Barnes, New York, 1955, 116 pp, illus Wesley Dennis
Another trotting story: this one I think was for children.
