Synopses & Reviews
...when I think about this period in my life, my summer of wonder and delight, I think of the blue sky, and my horse, his spine digging into my body, and the way when you're on a horse with a fine gait, the world just opens up its doors to welcome you. It was this perfect moment, and I lived it often, and the sky was so clear I swear to God you could see halfway across the world.
So writes T.M. McNally, clearly a horse person, fascinated with that almost mythical creature, whose physical power is second only to its power over our hearts and imaginations. With horses, we're aware that we're in the presence of joy; we're overwhelmed, we're smitten. Horses have saved our lives, pulled us from worry, steered us through our awkward adolescence, borne us triumphantly into some greater understanding about our place in the world.
In this volume of original pieces, twenty-five magnificent writers, reining language and emotion with the precision and sensitivity of an expert rider on a trusted steed, share passionate, funny, spiritual, stunningly emotional stories of this eternal bond between humankind and the creature Cleopatra Mathis calls "a great heaving machine powered by a faithful, easily broken heart": Franz Lidz interviews the great steeplechase jockey Dick Francis; Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley conquers a lifetime of paralyzing fears by jumping her horse; Peggy Sue (Rita Mae Brown's mare) offers straight-from-the-horse's-mouth advice. Lucy Grealy reflects on the horse's capacity for rescue and redemption, Diane Ackerman on the ecstasy of riding.
Combined with lavish photography, stunning art folios from artists such as Jamie Wyeth and Fritz Scholder, and Stan Fellows's luminous watercolors, Horse People, finally, is forty-three human beings who listen hard to horses--not to train them, or break them, or possess them, but to hear, in the perfect acoustics of a horse's returned silence, the few truths we've learned about the time we share on this planet.
Synopsis
"Deeply I sat, fixed to the slap, slap, slap of her trot, and the counterpoint thud-plod, thud-plod of her heart, enchanted by a soft percussion I felt part of, floating above the syncopated rhythm like a melody." --Diane Ackerman, recalling her beloved Appaloosa mare
Horses have inspired devotion, awe, and love in their human companions for millennia; in Horse People more than forty acclaimed writers and artists share their own passion for these magical, mythical animals.
Horse People includes deeply moving reminiscences and stories as varied as Jane Smiley's memories of her return to riding and Rita Mae Brown's straight-from-the-horse's-mouth tale "told" by her horse, Peggy Sue Brown. A wide range of artistic mediums are represented as well: Painter Jamie Wyeth evokes dreamlike memories of a rural past; photographer John Derryberry captures the untamed beauty of wild stallions in Kashmir.
Read this moving anthology and "you too will yearn to connect--or reconnect--with horses" (Town and Country).
Synopsis
twenty-five great writers, in pieces created especially for this volume and handsomely illustrated by contemporary artists and photographers, share their unbridled joy and passion for the horses in our lives
Profits from Horse People will be donated to The Company of Animals Fund to provide grants for continuous and emergency animal care nationwide
About the Author
Michael J. Rosen has written, edited, or illustrated a veritable kennel of books, including Workman's Kids' Best Dog Book; Artisan's Horse People, Fishing with Dad, and My Bug; and The Dog Department: James Thurber on Hounds, Scotties, and Talking Poodles and May Contain Nuts: A Very Loose Canon of American Humor. Many of his anthologies have supported humane efforts through the Company of Animals Fund, which he founded in 1990. He lives with his pack on 100 acres in central Ohio.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION BY MICHAEL J. ROSEN
"ASTRIDE THE TWILIGHT" BY DIANE ACKERMAN
"MY GRANDFATHER AND HIS BELGIANS" BY GARY GILDNER
"BOOTS, SADDLE, TO HORSE, AND AWAY!" BY CANDYCE BARNES
"Horsey Girl," excerpts from an installation by Janet Biggs
"HORSE RIFFS (A JOURNAL)" BY MEREDITH MONK
"Jumping," paintings by Michael Paraskevas
"NOTHING BUT TROUBLE SINCE THE DAY HE WAS BORN" BY JANA HARRIS
"THREE STORIES" BY DAVID ROMTVEDT
"Westward," photographs by Michael Houghton
"HORSEPOWER" BY SHELBY HEARON
"Wyoming" a photograph by Lindy Smith
"SIDE-VIEW: A MOTHER'S PERSPECTIVE" BY CLEOPATRA MATHIS
"Connemara," paintings by Jamie Wyeth
"WORKING WITH HUMANS" BY PEGGY SUE BRWON (RITA MAE BROWN'S HORSE)
"BREAKING HORSES: A SEDUCTION IN LETTER FORM" BY PAM HOUSTON
"City Horses," illustrations by Michael Plank
"ANGEL FOOT: A DOUBLE PORTRAIT" BY TESS GALLAGHER
"GOLDART" BY HENRY TAYLOR
A suite of paintings by Ivars Heinrihsons
"PAPERBACK RIDER: AN INTERVIEW WITH DICK FRANCIS" BY FRANZ LIDZ
"THE POWER OF HORSES" BY JOY HARJO
"Obsolete--Not for Navigational Purposes," collages by Todd DeVriese
"SUMMER SCHOOL" BY T.M. MCNALLY
"Horse and Camera," photographs by Sue Kyllonen
"ON WHITEY" BY MICHELLE HUNEVEN
"Work Horses," sculptures by Deborah Butterfield
"GOOD HORSE KEEPING" BY PAUL ZARZYSKI
"Red Bandanna," a painting by Bart Forbes
"HORSES CROSS, DONKEYS CROSS" BY JANE HIRSHFIELD
"Kashmir," photographs by John Derryberry
"THE BLUEBIRD OF HAPPINESS" BY GRETEL EHRLICH
"GLORY DAYS" BY MAXINE KUMIN
"Sparky Moves to Manhattan," images from a video by Debbie Sharp
"BIG" BY JONIS AGEE
"The Arabber Series," photographs by Robin Schwartz
"RESCUE" BY LUCY GREALY
"Pony Tales," paintings by Patricia Cronin
"IMPOSSIBLE HORSES" BY TOM RABBITT
"Texas, USA," photographs by Robb Kendrick
"PUISSANCE" BY JANE SMILEY
"Dream Horses," paintings and sculptures by Fritz Scholder
"LOVING THE OLDER HORSE" BY JO-ANN MAPSON
"Taking Flight," a painting by Eric Rohmann
CONTRIBUTORS' NOTES
CREDITS AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS