About the author
Dan Muller (alias Daniel Cody Muller 1889–1976) portrayed the American West. He is best known as an artist. Born in Montana, he said that he was adopted by Buffalo Bill Cody; an assertion which has not yet been proved one way or the other. He sold his early paintings to tourists in Yellowstone Park. During World War I he broke horses for the Army, and after that worked as a ranch hand. His Western paintings started to sell, and he was commissioned to paint murals. He illustrated magazines and articles, and his first book Horses was published in 1936. Non fiction, it featured his paintings and drawings of horses. His one children’s work was Chico of the +Up Ranch, which is profusely illustrated by him. The dustjacket of Chico says “Dan Muller is, first and last, a cowboy, and he would rather be known as a good “hand” by one of his own breed than win the Irish Sweepstakes.”
Finding the book
Chico and Horses are easy to find in the USA. Black Beauty is not quite as easy to find, but is not impossible. None of his books were published in the UK.
Links and sources
Terri A. Wear: Horse Stories, an Annotated Bibliography, Scarecrow Press, 1987
National Library of Congress
Wikipedia entry on Dan Muller
Many thanks to Alison for her help with the photographs and author info.
Bibliography (horse books only)
Chico of the + Up Ranch
Rerilly & Lee, Chicago, 1938, 249 pp, illus the author
Chico was an orphaned palomino foal given to Buck as a child, and the two grew up together on the ranch. When Buck went off to art school in Chicago, Chico came along too. The blurb says:
“There’s strife between the Cross Up outfit and the Lazy Me over disputed cattle; there’s a rodeo in Chicago in which Chico’s performance and beauty are the envy of all contestants – too much the envy of one alas – there is the career of Yellow Fever the outlaw horse, and at last there is an appealing love story when Buck’s childhood sweetheart seeks him out at the rodeo in New York.”
Horses
Reilly & Lee Co, Chicago, 1936, 204 pp, illus the author
Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1993
Contains 100 drawings of “horses of every kind, in every place. Racers, polo ponies, mustangs, broncs, the proud Palomino of the Conquistadores, the faithful plow horse of the farmer.”
Black Beauty (Anna Sewell)
Whitman, 1945, illustrated by Dan Muller