I love to read, so much so that I always have at least one book in progress (and often two.) I especially love classic literature, so when I found this classic book about my favorite animal and illustrated by a well-loved equine illustrator, I snagged it. ($6! Yay!)
The Red Pony by John Steinbeck.
This book belonged to someone lucky enough to have his own bookplates! (I always wanted a set of those but never had any.)
The 1945 edition of
The Red Pony was the first to have illustrations, and equine artist Wesley Dennis was selected to do the job.
There are some smaller illustrations interspersed throughout the book, but this edition also has special pages that are full sized and have no text on the back.
People used to cut these out of books with a knife and frame them. Honestly, I am tempted - if I had a second copy of this edition, I just might do it!
The red pony is named Gabilan. One of my carpet herd horses is named that, but I had not remembered where I'd gotten the name. I'd searched once and found a mountain range called the Gabilan Range (presumably where Steinbeck got the name for the pony) but I did not find a connection to this book years ago when I searched. Now I know.
I am not a fan of John Steinbeck as I find his books to be depressing. And after reading The Red Pony in grade school, I set the book aside, never to read it again. But I am going to reread it and see if time has changed my opinion of the book.
And even if I end up not liking it, I still have a lovely vintage book with beautiful illustrations to put on my shelf and enjoy.
