For the reading group meeting on Wednesday, August 30, we'll be discussing the first volume of David Gray's short stories, entitled Gallops. Keep in mind that these stories were probably originally published in magazines during the 1890s and early 1900s. Does that sound familiar? These are American stories comparable to those of Somerville and Ross. Not all the stories are hunting-related. There are certainly racing stories and horse-dealing stories.
Some biographical information on David Gray, 1870 - ?
From Six Centuries of Foxhunting: An Annotated Bibliography
The Hitchcock Edition of David Gray: Gallops, Gallops 2, Mr. Carteret. New York: Derrydale Press, 1929. Three octavo volumes with a total of 533 pp., with illustrations by Paul Brown. Limited to 750 numbered copies, with volume 1 signed by Mr. Gray. Red cloth. Issued with cardboard slipcase.
Gray, like Gordon Grand, was an attorney and occasional writer (he did write a couple of plays that appeared briefly on Broadway). His three books of fiction are centered in the American horse community with much on foxhunting, steeplechasing, and descriptions of rural life.
Gray was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Ireland from 1940 to 1947. While minister there, he enjoyed a great friendship with Edith OE Somerville, who visited with him and his family many times throughout the war years.
From British and American Sporting Authors, David Gray (1870 - )
David Gray, United States Minister to Eire for some years, was born and brought up in the United States. Graduating from Harvard University in 1892, he took up journalism, writing several charming hunting stories, which were afterwards published collectively, under the title of Gallops. At this time, Mr. Gray was living in the Genesee Valley country, and hunting with Major Wadsworth's hounds, and some of the characters bore an unmistakable resemblance to the members of the Genesee Valley Hunt field. Gallops was an instant success, and was followed, a few years later, by another volume, which he called Gallops II, and, after a further interval by Mr. Carteret and Others.
I well remember the popularity of the stories when they first came out. People who did not know Mr. Gray asked who he was, where he hunted, and where he had acquired the knowledge and experience in America which made it possible for him to bring to his stories such an intimate atmosphere of the hunting field. When I heard from friends that he had hunted behind Major Wadsworth's Hounds, in The Genesee Valley, I realized at once from whence it had come. Although Mr. Gray's stories in Gallops and Gallops II are typical of American hunting, one or two of them contain characters which are so typically British that it is easy to see that the writer also had had experience in the hunting fields of England, and this is even more apparent in the third volume of hunting stories, Mr. Carteret and Others, which came out a few years later. I have often wondered why Mr. Gray did not indulge in further "Gallops." They may not have been, in one sense of the word, great literature, but, to my way of thinking, they gave the best picture of the American hunting field that had been produced up to that time, and were later dramatized in the play which, under the title of "Gallops," had a most successful run in New York.
Links to online versions of the books:
The first thing you'll see is the book in a format to be read online. Scroll down for downloads in various formats. The easiest way to proceed is to use the cable to connect your reader to your computer and then download directly to the reader.
Gallops
Gallops 2
Mr. Carteret
Thursday, July 27, 2017
Foxhunting in North America
For the July 2017 meeting of the reading group, we read Foxhunting in North America by Alexander Mackay-Smith. We all agreed that the book is packed with valuable information. For someone who has never hunted, this is probably not the best book. Once someone has started hunting and wants to know more, this is exactly the book to give to that person.
Some biographical information on Alexander Mackay-Smith, 1903-1998.
From the United States Eventing Association Hall of Fame
There is possibly no one who has done more to further the interests of all equestrian sports during this century than Alexander Mackay-Smith. Author, scholar, horseman and visionary leader, Mr. Mackay-Smith left no stone unturned when it came to promoting those causes that were dear to him.
From Six Centuries of Foxhunting: An Annotated Bibliography
Mackay-Smith grew up in Manhattan, and after graduating from Harvard Law School, worked in the administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He began hunting in his late twenties, and over the course of the next 70 years became one of the most influential individuals in the American equine world. He was the MFH for the Blue Ridge Hunt, 1936-1942, and the Rock Hill Hounds, 1939-1942, and was the co-founder and curator of the National Sporting Library as well as editor of Chronicle of the Horse from 1952 to 1975.
He was an accomplished musician who began playing the violin at age 12 and furthered his study of that instrument between graduation from Harvard and attending Harvard's graduate school. This love of music was instrumental in his researching foxhunting songs and eventually publishing The Songs of Foxhunting in 1974.
His books are important and certainly part of his legacy. However, the organizations that he helped found are perhaps more important – the list of these organizations includes the United States Pony Club, North American Riding for the Handicapped Association, United States Combined Training Association, National Sporting Library, Cleveland Bay Society, Morven Park International Equestrian Institute, Virginia Thoroughbred Association, American Remount Association, Clarke County Historical Association, and American Academy of Equine Artists.
Mackay-Smith wrote the introductions to a dozen or more equine titles written by others, and also wrote three books on racing: The Racehorses of America, 1832 -1872, published in 1981; The Colonial Quarter Race Horse (1983); and Speed and the Thoroughbred (2000).
Some biographical information on Alexander Mackay-Smith, 1903-1998.
From the United States Eventing Association Hall of Fame
There is possibly no one who has done more to further the interests of all equestrian sports during this century than Alexander Mackay-Smith. Author, scholar, horseman and visionary leader, Mr. Mackay-Smith left no stone unturned when it came to promoting those causes that were dear to him.
From Six Centuries of Foxhunting: An Annotated Bibliography
Mackay-Smith grew up in Manhattan, and after graduating from Harvard Law School, worked in the administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He began hunting in his late twenties, and over the course of the next 70 years became one of the most influential individuals in the American equine world. He was the MFH for the Blue Ridge Hunt, 1936-1942, and the Rock Hill Hounds, 1939-1942, and was the co-founder and curator of the National Sporting Library as well as editor of Chronicle of the Horse from 1952 to 1975.
He was an accomplished musician who began playing the violin at age 12 and furthered his study of that instrument between graduation from Harvard and attending Harvard's graduate school. This love of music was instrumental in his researching foxhunting songs and eventually publishing The Songs of Foxhunting in 1974.
His books are important and certainly part of his legacy. However, the organizations that he helped found are perhaps more important – the list of these organizations includes the United States Pony Club, North American Riding for the Handicapped Association, United States Combined Training Association, National Sporting Library, Cleveland Bay Society, Morven Park International Equestrian Institute, Virginia Thoroughbred Association, American Remount Association, Clarke County Historical Association, and American Academy of Equine Artists.
Mackay-Smith wrote the introductions to a dozen or more equine titles written by others, and also wrote three books on racing: The Racehorses of America, 1832 -1872, published in 1981; The Colonial Quarter Race Horse (1983); and Speed and the Thoroughbred (2000).
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Reading groups for foxhunters
We've had a couple of questions about the reading group. One was from someone who wants to try organizing a similar group and one was from a journalist who wants to write an article promoting the idea. I was trying to organize my thoughts and offer up anything interesting or useful and I do that by writing so here are some fairly random thoughts.
If there are even two of you who are interested, go ahead and organize "meetings" and announce them to the relevant audience. Hugh and I literally talked about these books for years and lamented that more people weren't interested. You'll never know who's interested until you give them a group.
At some point you have to decide how focused your reading list will be. We declared right off the bat that we wanted to read foxhunting books. Not horse books. Not racing books. We've enjoyed some fiction with a foxhunting setting -- not really about foxhunting but still quite educational in a lot of ways. And in the spirit of being inclusive, we've tried to be open-minded about suggested books while still insisting on the foxhunting focus.
Someone also has to decide who the members of the group will be. I think that most book clubs start with a small number of people who either decide what reading list they'll use or divide the responsibility for choosing books and then the group stays quite static. We wanted to be as inclusive as possible. We have never limited the number of people or where they're coming from. We made a conscious decision to try to use the term "reading group" to emphasize that we're not a club -- no dues, no memberships, no chores. Although the reading group is organized by a few of us from one Hunt, we have welcomed all comers. That was important to us. We might have had enough members from our Hunt to sustain the group but it's debatable. We've had fairly regular participation from members of two other nearby Hunts. The relationship between these three Hunts has always been good; we enjoy joint meets fairly regularly, among other things. It gives another dimension to the group and I think it has added tremendously to the discussion.
Quite a few of our participants travel a good distance to participate. Just like with hunting. We meet once a month so it's not really onerous. We have had a few people host the meetings in their homes most of the time. We almost always have dinner prior to the meeting. Our Hunt has a building we can use but . . . this is not a function of our Hunt so I hesitate to impose or to abuse the privilege. And it makes no sense to turn up the heat for a short meeting. We have met in a restaurant but I find that a little difficult -- noisy and distracting and sometimes intimidating.
Running the meetings is like walking a tightrope. I've never been part of a reading group or book club but individuals that I talked to, and things I read, uniformly complained about discussions going off-topic and meetings getting hijacked. I know we also have several people who were quite concerned about dealing with personal criticism (having their comments ridiculed). Fortunately, we've had very little of that but there will definitely be different points of view. You have to prepare people for that (yes, really) and you also have to de-stress the whole thing. It's just a book. Some people didn't like it. Some people didn't read it. Yes, come to the meeting anyway. Maybe you'll feel motivated to read it. Maybe you'll feel validated about not wasting your time on that book. Just come!
Many people will never come to a meeting. They don't have the time but they definitely want to know what we're reading. We've had twenty-six people express interest to the point that they want to know what we're reading and they intend to read along. I think our largest meeting was 15 people. We're averaging 8 to 12 or so now. Part of that depends on the weather. And we're running out of fun books so the number may drop further.
We communicate by email. I had considered setting up a separate email list but no one wanted that. (I had envisioned carry-over discussion taking place by email but that hasn't happened.) With 26 people being interested at some level, we made the executive decision to use our existing "open" email list. It's "the" email list for members of the Hunt but it is not restricted to members and it's definitely not restricted to "official" messages from the Hunt to the membership. Again, as far as I'm concerned, more communication is better. If folks only want the official announcements (which turns out to be primarily a monthly newsletter), there is a separate email list for that. The reality is that we announce the next meeting, report on discussion at the most recent meeting, and mention who has books to sell or lend.
Procuring the books can be a problem. We have one participant who is a book dealer. She has offered us discounts on new books and has sourced old books. I am of the opinion that we're affecting book prices. If we're thinking about reading a particular book, I'll buy a used copy on the internet. I don't want collectible copies. I want things I can read and lend and not worry about and they're frequently plentiful. A month or two later, when we actually announce that we're going to read this book, copies have disappeared and prices have gone up. This is not a problem with new books or books that have had large print runs, but some of the more unusual books are the most fun and it's disappointing for them to be extremely expensive. The Old Man Hunts and one of the Ronnie Wallace books fall into this category.
To start with, Hugh and I put together several lists of books which included the reading list from the MFHA's Professional Development Program. Our resident book dealer, Carol Lueder, also has had many suggestions. Hugh and Carol have read quite a variety of books! We don't always agree about books and that's not a bad thing. (There's a certain satisfaction in being able to say, I didn't want to read this book and I was right -- I hated it.) We have dragged many, many books to meetings for people to look at. After doing this for a year, it still surprises me that most folks just want us to tell them what to read. Many of them don't even want to vote on fiction or nonfiction.
Over the course of a year, very few people have read every book. Most people are willing to try anything but . . . if you love modern suspense you may plow through one older, slower book but you're not likely to persist through a stack of them. I love fiction but there simply isn't a whole lot of it related to foxhunting. Biography seems to be a love-hate thing. And if I'm going to prescribe reading material, I do want to include some good how-to nonfiction. Part of the point is to foster education.
We have read selected chapters from certain books. Thoughts on Hounds and Hunting is a classic and it provides a great framework for discussing hounds, but much of it is out of date or not of interest to the average modern foxhunter. We have also circulated a few books to individuals and asked them to do "book reports." Red Fox, The Catlike Canine is a good example. It's got a lot of information but it's not a fun read. A few people have thoroughly enjoyed it -- and only read it because of one reader's book report. Several of us couldn't get through it. This is probably true for most books. The only thing you can do is select books that you think most people will read and enjoy. You can't please everyone every month.
Our discussions have been quite . . . interesting. We have one pretty serious reader and writer and that has been hugely beneficial to the group. She has participated in other books clubs and had some great suggestions. (I had absolutely no idea how to proceed.) She suggested that one person should give a little background on the book. Sometimes that means talking about the historical period during which the book is set or was written. Sometimes that means talking about the author. Sometimes that means talking about how one book connects to others.
A couple of ideas about discussions -- I guess it's typical to go around the group and ask if you liked the book or not and why. That works pretty well. You can also talk about what you learned, what you'd never seen or heard of before, what surprised you. Most of us are not particularly critical readers but some basic points really stick out in certain books -- characters behaving inconsistently, weak endings, incomplete back story. Because most of us are actually hunting (not just wannabes) you can talk about the hunting descriptions. Even in fiction, the hunting action and the descriptions can be well worthy of discussion. In Mary Motley Kalergis's book, one question drives her interviews. It was time-consuming but well worth asking each participant to answer the same question. The answers had nothing to do with the book but were fascinating. And that's a great discussion for members of a hunt club.
We started with The Irish RM and that was a brilliant move. I think Hugh and I had both forgotten just how often it's referenced in other books. It was great fun to move on to the next books and keep seeing references to Somerville and Ross. Everyone got that insider feeling -- I know what they're talking about! And it's widely available, including as an ebook. Some people really liked that. We held off on Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man to save it for winter-time reading, presumably when people are indoors with more time to read. (I'm not sure the hard-core foxhunters have more reading time in the winter but it's a thought.) A few of us thought it was essential for the reading group but I was concerned that it might be too slow with not enough hunting content. I was pleased with how well it was received although reviews varied considerably.
From the very beginning people have wondered how long it would be until we ran out of books. And that's another line in the sand that has to be considered. Hunting Big Game with Dogs in Africa was suggested by Carol so I read it. I would consider that for the reading group even though its only connection to foxhunting is the hound work and hound training. Several of us have read Meet Mr. Grizzly and I'd consider using that book, or parts of it with the same caveat. I think they are far more appropriate than most of the horse books. (Hunting Big Game with Dogs in Africa was sold at one time by the MFHA but it's astoundingly scarce and relatively expensive.)
Needless to say, many of these books are older. At some point you will be forced to discuss how to evaluate old books. The attitudes and social mores and speech of those older generations are completely different from what is acceptable today. Some people can easily accept that or ignore that and evaluate the book on that basis. Some people find these older books completely unacceptable and will never enjoy reading anything like that. (If you think this is not likely to come up, google Rudyard Kipling. And this can be a rewarding discussion, in limited quantities.)
For those who might organize a reading group, or for ambitious readers, it would be really helpful to have several book lists (at least fiction, biography & memoir, and other nonfiction) with reader comments. Our participants are (very, very) unwilling to offer comments in print, even without their name attached. It's difficult for me to criticize modern books. I'm really not a critical reader or a knowledgeable reader. If all I can say is that I didn't like it, that's not worth saying.
And that's one thing about the reading group that's been very rewarding for me. It has forced me to really think about what it is that makes a book good or bad for me. I might criticize an unsatisfactory ending but thinking about how it could be fixed is a very different task. When a section of a book makes me squirm or grimace, I try to think about it and not just zoom past. Knowing there will be a discussion does make for a different reading experience.
If there are even two of you who are interested, go ahead and organize "meetings" and announce them to the relevant audience. Hugh and I literally talked about these books for years and lamented that more people weren't interested. You'll never know who's interested until you give them a group.
At some point you have to decide how focused your reading list will be. We declared right off the bat that we wanted to read foxhunting books. Not horse books. Not racing books. We've enjoyed some fiction with a foxhunting setting -- not really about foxhunting but still quite educational in a lot of ways. And in the spirit of being inclusive, we've tried to be open-minded about suggested books while still insisting on the foxhunting focus.
Someone also has to decide who the members of the group will be. I think that most book clubs start with a small number of people who either decide what reading list they'll use or divide the responsibility for choosing books and then the group stays quite static. We wanted to be as inclusive as possible. We have never limited the number of people or where they're coming from. We made a conscious decision to try to use the term "reading group" to emphasize that we're not a club -- no dues, no memberships, no chores. Although the reading group is organized by a few of us from one Hunt, we have welcomed all comers. That was important to us. We might have had enough members from our Hunt to sustain the group but it's debatable. We've had fairly regular participation from members of two other nearby Hunts. The relationship between these three Hunts has always been good; we enjoy joint meets fairly regularly, among other things. It gives another dimension to the group and I think it has added tremendously to the discussion.
Quite a few of our participants travel a good distance to participate. Just like with hunting. We meet once a month so it's not really onerous. We have had a few people host the meetings in their homes most of the time. We almost always have dinner prior to the meeting. Our Hunt has a building we can use but . . . this is not a function of our Hunt so I hesitate to impose or to abuse the privilege. And it makes no sense to turn up the heat for a short meeting. We have met in a restaurant but I find that a little difficult -- noisy and distracting and sometimes intimidating.
Running the meetings is like walking a tightrope. I've never been part of a reading group or book club but individuals that I talked to, and things I read, uniformly complained about discussions going off-topic and meetings getting hijacked. I know we also have several people who were quite concerned about dealing with personal criticism (having their comments ridiculed). Fortunately, we've had very little of that but there will definitely be different points of view. You have to prepare people for that (yes, really) and you also have to de-stress the whole thing. It's just a book. Some people didn't like it. Some people didn't read it. Yes, come to the meeting anyway. Maybe you'll feel motivated to read it. Maybe you'll feel validated about not wasting your time on that book. Just come!
Many people will never come to a meeting. They don't have the time but they definitely want to know what we're reading. We've had twenty-six people express interest to the point that they want to know what we're reading and they intend to read along. I think our largest meeting was 15 people. We're averaging 8 to 12 or so now. Part of that depends on the weather. And we're running out of fun books so the number may drop further.
We communicate by email. I had considered setting up a separate email list but no one wanted that. (I had envisioned carry-over discussion taking place by email but that hasn't happened.) With 26 people being interested at some level, we made the executive decision to use our existing "open" email list. It's "the" email list for members of the Hunt but it is not restricted to members and it's definitely not restricted to "official" messages from the Hunt to the membership. Again, as far as I'm concerned, more communication is better. If folks only want the official announcements (which turns out to be primarily a monthly newsletter), there is a separate email list for that. The reality is that we announce the next meeting, report on discussion at the most recent meeting, and mention who has books to sell or lend.
Procuring the books can be a problem. We have one participant who is a book dealer. She has offered us discounts on new books and has sourced old books. I am of the opinion that we're affecting book prices. If we're thinking about reading a particular book, I'll buy a used copy on the internet. I don't want collectible copies. I want things I can read and lend and not worry about and they're frequently plentiful. A month or two later, when we actually announce that we're going to read this book, copies have disappeared and prices have gone up. This is not a problem with new books or books that have had large print runs, but some of the more unusual books are the most fun and it's disappointing for them to be extremely expensive. The Old Man Hunts and one of the Ronnie Wallace books fall into this category.
To start with, Hugh and I put together several lists of books which included the reading list from the MFHA's Professional Development Program. Our resident book dealer, Carol Lueder, also has had many suggestions. Hugh and Carol have read quite a variety of books! We don't always agree about books and that's not a bad thing. (There's a certain satisfaction in being able to say, I didn't want to read this book and I was right -- I hated it.) We have dragged many, many books to meetings for people to look at. After doing this for a year, it still surprises me that most folks just want us to tell them what to read. Many of them don't even want to vote on fiction or nonfiction.
Over the course of a year, very few people have read every book. Most people are willing to try anything but . . . if you love modern suspense you may plow through one older, slower book but you're not likely to persist through a stack of them. I love fiction but there simply isn't a whole lot of it related to foxhunting. Biography seems to be a love-hate thing. And if I'm going to prescribe reading material, I do want to include some good how-to nonfiction. Part of the point is to foster education.
We have read selected chapters from certain books. Thoughts on Hounds and Hunting is a classic and it provides a great framework for discussing hounds, but much of it is out of date or not of interest to the average modern foxhunter. We have also circulated a few books to individuals and asked them to do "book reports." Red Fox, The Catlike Canine is a good example. It's got a lot of information but it's not a fun read. A few people have thoroughly enjoyed it -- and only read it because of one reader's book report. Several of us couldn't get through it. This is probably true for most books. The only thing you can do is select books that you think most people will read and enjoy. You can't please everyone every month.
Our discussions have been quite . . . interesting. We have one pretty serious reader and writer and that has been hugely beneficial to the group. She has participated in other books clubs and had some great suggestions. (I had absolutely no idea how to proceed.) She suggested that one person should give a little background on the book. Sometimes that means talking about the historical period during which the book is set or was written. Sometimes that means talking about the author. Sometimes that means talking about how one book connects to others.
A couple of ideas about discussions -- I guess it's typical to go around the group and ask if you liked the book or not and why. That works pretty well. You can also talk about what you learned, what you'd never seen or heard of before, what surprised you. Most of us are not particularly critical readers but some basic points really stick out in certain books -- characters behaving inconsistently, weak endings, incomplete back story. Because most of us are actually hunting (not just wannabes) you can talk about the hunting descriptions. Even in fiction, the hunting action and the descriptions can be well worthy of discussion. In Mary Motley Kalergis's book, one question drives her interviews. It was time-consuming but well worth asking each participant to answer the same question. The answers had nothing to do with the book but were fascinating. And that's a great discussion for members of a hunt club.
We started with The Irish RM and that was a brilliant move. I think Hugh and I had both forgotten just how often it's referenced in other books. It was great fun to move on to the next books and keep seeing references to Somerville and Ross. Everyone got that insider feeling -- I know what they're talking about! And it's widely available, including as an ebook. Some people really liked that. We held off on Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man to save it for winter-time reading, presumably when people are indoors with more time to read. (I'm not sure the hard-core foxhunters have more reading time in the winter but it's a thought.) A few of us thought it was essential for the reading group but I was concerned that it might be too slow with not enough hunting content. I was pleased with how well it was received although reviews varied considerably.
From the very beginning people have wondered how long it would be until we ran out of books. And that's another line in the sand that has to be considered. Hunting Big Game with Dogs in Africa was suggested by Carol so I read it. I would consider that for the reading group even though its only connection to foxhunting is the hound work and hound training. Several of us have read Meet Mr. Grizzly and I'd consider using that book, or parts of it with the same caveat. I think they are far more appropriate than most of the horse books. (Hunting Big Game with Dogs in Africa was sold at one time by the MFHA but it's astoundingly scarce and relatively expensive.)
Needless to say, many of these books are older. At some point you will be forced to discuss how to evaluate old books. The attitudes and social mores and speech of those older generations are completely different from what is acceptable today. Some people can easily accept that or ignore that and evaluate the book on that basis. Some people find these older books completely unacceptable and will never enjoy reading anything like that. (If you think this is not likely to come up, google Rudyard Kipling. And this can be a rewarding discussion, in limited quantities.)
For those who might organize a reading group, or for ambitious readers, it would be really helpful to have several book lists (at least fiction, biography & memoir, and other nonfiction) with reader comments. Our participants are (very, very) unwilling to offer comments in print, even without their name attached. It's difficult for me to criticize modern books. I'm really not a critical reader or a knowledgeable reader. If all I can say is that I didn't like it, that's not worth saying.
And that's one thing about the reading group that's been very rewarding for me. It has forced me to really think about what it is that makes a book good or bad for me. I might criticize an unsatisfactory ending but thinking about how it could be fixed is a very different task. When a section of a book makes me squirm or grimace, I try to think about it and not just zoom past. Knowing there will be a discussion does make for a different reading experience.
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
Social functions
Potential social functions for a group:
- Dinner at local restaurant(s) – e.g., “Dinner on Xday at Xlocation at Xtime -- let me know you’re coming so I can make reservations.”
- Wine tasting (Rockbridge Vineyard? Others?)
- Brewery tour (Devil’s Backbone? Others?)
- Train trip (Cass? Others?)
- Farm tour (Polyface Farm? http://www.polyfacefarms.com/farm-tours/ )
- Japanese tea ceremony (offered periodically by a student group at W&L)
- Soup swap (or crock-pot swap) – participants bring a dish, share samples and/or recipes
- There has been a loosely organized group who go to Rolex. Any potential there?
- Free movies at W&L (these have never been crowded): "The campus and community are invited to attend. All screenings are in Stackhouse Theater--FREE ADMISSION! Movies are shown the first full weekend of every month that classes are in session. Showtimes are Friday and Saturday at 7pm and Sunday at 2pm."
- February 3-5: Loving
- March 3-5: Jackie
- April 7-9: Hidden Figures
- May 5-7: La La Land
- May 12-14: Sing (special Alumni Weekend screening)
- Highland Maple Festival, http://www.highlandcounty.org/events/maple-festival/
- Virginia Hound Show, Sunday, May 28
- Would there be interest in attending a baseball game somewhere?
- Taubman Museum in Roanoke
- Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke
- Polo match and wine tasting at King Family Vineyard in Crozet, http://www.kingfamilyvineyards.com/Polo
- Charlestown races, schedule
Reading preferences
Do we hate reading single chapters? (Hounds and Hunting Through the Ages)
Do we hate reading a whole book, one chapter per month? (Foxhunting in North America or Thoughts on Hunting)
Do we hate reading fiction, one chapter per month? (Surtees)
Do we hate long books? (A Portion for Foxes or The Prophet of Paradise)
Do we hate series? (Lure of the Chase, Start of the Chase, Cost of the Chase [second and third available for Kindle])
Do we hate reading a whole book, one chapter per month? (Foxhunting in North America or Thoughts on Hunting)
Do we hate reading fiction, one chapter per month? (Surtees)
Do we hate long books? (A Portion for Foxes or The Prophet of Paradise)
Do we hate series? (Lure of the Chase, Start of the Chase, Cost of the Chase [second and third available for Kindle])
Monday, January 2, 2017
Children's horse books
Children's horse books (not necessarily hunting-related). Each entry at Wikipedia includes some biographical information and a bibliography.
Marguerite Henry at Wikipedia
Wesley Dennis -- primarily an illustrator -- at Wikipedia
C. W. Anderson at Wikipedia (There were more Billy and Blaze books than I realized!)
Walter Farley at Wikipedia (Walter Farley wrote many books including both The Black Stallion series and a series for younger readers about Little Black, A Pony.)
Will James at Wikipedia
Many of these authors won the Newbery Medal for children's literature.
Any others?
Marguerite Henry at Wikipedia
Wesley Dennis -- primarily an illustrator -- at Wikipedia
C. W. Anderson at Wikipedia (There were more Billy and Blaze books than I realized!)
Walter Farley at Wikipedia (Walter Farley wrote many books including both The Black Stallion series and a series for younger readers about Little Black, A Pony.)
Will James at Wikipedia
Many of these authors won the Newbery Medal for children's literature.
Any others?