About the author
Lewis Lee Shaffer McGiffin (1908–78) was born in Indiana, and educated at the University of Alabama. She worked as a journalist (using the name Lee Shaffer) for the Syracuse, New York, Post-Standard, and the Buffalo Evening News. She married, and once her family were older, she started writing again, and published her first children’s books, Ten Tall Texans and The Fifer of San Jacinto, in 1956. She went on to write several children’s historical stories, amongst which were at least two horse stories: The Horse Hunters and The Mustangers. It’s possible more of her books were about horses. If you’re able to help track them down, please contact me.
Finding the books
Both books are reasonably easy to find.
Links and sources
Terri Wear: Horse Stories: An Annotated Bibliography
Sherilyn Brandenstein, “MCGIFFIN, LEWIS LEE SHAFFER,” Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fmcsd), accessed June 12, 2013. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
Bibliography (horse books only)
The Horse Hunters
Dutton, 1963
Jeff and Sam herd their mustangs; not one of them tamed, to New Orleans. Their aim is to sell the horses to the Confederate Army, but before they can do it, Union Soldiers steal the horses. Jeff and Sam join the Confederate troops in an attempt to track the horses down.
The Mustangers
Dutton, 1965
Andy Taylor has romantic visions about mustanging. He’s living in New York, but he leaves and sets out for the West, to try and find his father, who is a mustanger in Texas.