About the author
Walt Morey (1907–92) was born in Washington. He hated school, and reading, until he was given a biography of his neighbour, artist Charles Russell, to read. Reading about someone familiar, and reading something to which he could relate, started him off as a reader. After a varied career which saw him fight as a boxer, he settled to writing once he found a target for it. He wrote many stories for the “pulp” magazines, but that ended when the advent of television in the 1950s saw off the pulps. He went to Alaska to work for the summer as a deep sea diver, and this resulted (eventually, after his wife and friends pushed him) into his turning his experiences into children’s books. He had a deep love for the natural world, which found expression in his stories of animals and of humanity finding redemption through nature, and survival. His best known books were Gentle Ben and Karvik, the Wolf Dog, but he also wrote two horse stories, Year of the Black Pony and Runaway Stallion.
The Oregon Encyclopedia said he brought “ the voice of the working stiff to his writing.”
Finding the books
Easy to find.
Links and sources
Terri Wear: Horse Stories: An Annotated Bibliography
The Oregon Encyclopedia on Walt Morey
Walt Morey’s papers are at the University of Oregon
Bibliography (horse books only)
Year of the Black Pony
Dutton, New York, 1976, 152 pp.
Collins, London, 1977, 152 pp.
Fontana, London, 1979 pb, 127 pp.
Bethlehem Books, San Francisco, 2006, 171 pp.
When Chris’ father is killed in an accident,
his mother decides the family must leave their farm.
Runaway Stallion
Dutton, New York, 1973, 217 pp.
Buchanan Resources, 1989
Jeff and his family have moved from the city to an isolated ranching valley. Shunned by neighbours, and teased at school, Jeff longs to return to the city. Things begin to change for him the night he first sees the huge red stallion. Bred and trained for racing, the thoroughbred has escaped from his trainer.
Jeff catches him, and now people take notice of him, riding the finest horse in the valley. But the beautiful and headstrong stallion also brings new and often dangerous problems to Jeff and his family.
