Miller, Helen Markley

About the author

Helen Markley Miller (b.1909) was born and educated in Iowa, and taught English until her marriage. After her husband died, she started teaching again. She wrote several fictionalised biographies, and a ski-ing story inspired by her son, Andrew Markley Miller, an Olympic cross-country skier. Two of her books involve horses, Blades of Grass rather more so than The Lucky Laceys.

Finding the books
Both books are easy to find, and not expensive.

Links and sources
Wikipedia on Helen Markley Miller
National Library of Congress
Thanks to Lisa Catz for the photographs and summaries


Bibliography (horse books only)


Blades of Grass

Doubleday & Company, Inc, New York, 1963, 214 pp, illus Salem Tamer

Madge has had to move to Idaho, where she has no friends, and no school. Her father raises cattle; Madge wishes she had a horse of her own to alleviate the boredom, but she just has old Gabe, the family horse, unlike her brother Alan, who has a lively horse called Comet. Alan eventually lets Madge ride Comet, which helps when Alan wants to marry the daughter of some new people in the valley. To do so, he needs 500 dollars, and racing Comet, with Madge up, looks like the only way of doing it.

The Lucky Laceys

Doubleday & Company Inc, New York, 1962, 183 pp, illus Robert Frankenberg

Lindy lives on a pig farm in Idaho in 1877, with her horse Magpie and her pet pig Illy. Times are tough, and the whole family herd the pigs to a mining town to sell them. They have many adventures on the way.