About the author
Bill Martin (1916–2004) collaborated with his brother Bernard (dates unknown) on ten books. Five of them were about horses, with three forming a series for the younger reader.
Bill had difficulty learning to read, and this difficulty informed much of his later career. He taught, obtained a doctorate in early education, and joined the publishers Holt, Rinehart and Wilson as editor-in-chief of their school division, where he was to develop a reading programme. He went on to write over 300 books in his own right.
Finding the books
All the books are easy to find: even good signed copies are readily available.
Links and sources
Wikipedia on Bill Martin
Terri Wear: Horse Stories: An Annotated Bibliography
Thank you to Lisa Catz for summaries and photographs.
Series
Eagle
Lightning a Cowboy’s Colt
Silver Stallion
Wild Horse Round-up
Bibliography (horse books only)
Lightning, a Cowboy’s Colt
Tell-Well Press, Kansas City, 1948, 23 pp, illus the authors
A rancher’s son and an Indian boy find friendship and understanding through their mutual love of a gallant horse.
Silver Stallion
Tell-Well Press, Kansas City, 1949, 28 pp.
A group of three children solve the mystery of the silver stallion.
Wild Horse Roundup
Tell-Well Press, Kansas City, 1950, 33 pp.
An outlaw horse flees into Indian territory when she is being chased by cowboys. Once there, she’s captured by Indians, who think her arrival is an omen from the Great Spirit. Because of this, the mare becomes part of ceremonies which frighten her. Eagle, an Indian boy, rescues her.
Palomino Pony
Tell-Well Press, Kansas City, 1952, unpaginated
Jesse wants a pony, but his parents are not keen. Jesse though is sold a palomino pony
for 39 cents and nine feet of wood. I think that the pony might well be a Highland, going from descriptions I’ve read of the book.
The Green-Eyed Stallion
John C Winston Company, 1953, 128 pp, illus Bernard Martin
Tell-Well Press, Kansas City, 1953, 128 pp (These two editions might be one and the same).
Vern and his older brother, Galen, have been forbidden to go near the rank stallion. But Galen is determined to master the horse, and enlists Vern’s help. Secretly he tries to break the stallion, and takes a beating from him. Their father says he will shoot the stallion if either one of them goes near him again. Then Galen enlists in the army, and makes Vern promise to take over for him. Instead of breaking the stallion, he befriends him, and eventually the stallion allows him to ride him. It doesn’t go well, so can they find a buyer in the two weeks they’re given by their father?
