Dana Faralla

The Magnificent Barb

Julian Messner, NY, 1947, “decorations by Paul Laune”
Grosset & Dunlap, 1947 “Famous Horse Series”
Macdonald, London, 1948, illus Paul Laune

Everyone in Mare’s Nest, a Georgian plantation, lives and breathes
horses, including Kevin.  Kevin dreams of the Goldolphin Barb, and
then some Irish horse traders turn up with a magnificent Barb
stallion.  Kevin is determined to own the Barb himself.

Black Renegade

J.P. Lippincott, Philadelphia 1954, cover art Paul Laune
Macdonald, London, 1954

Kevin is waiting for the Barb’s son, Balzan, to grow up, and is filling in time by exercising John Rand’s
racehorses.  There he meets the roge stallion Black Lightning.

Dana Faralla wrote several children’s books, but as far as I know, only these two horse books.  Black Renegade is the sequel to Magnificent Barb.

The following biographical snipped comes from the dustjacket of Black Renegade.
 

“Dana Faralla was born in Minnesota of Danish, French and German ancestry and was graduated from the drama school of the Ithaca, New York, Conservatory of Music. She has been a professional actress under two different stage names, a writer of publicity for an art gallery, factotum in a rare book shop, associate editor of a poetry magazine, a screen story analyst and a scenario writer. She has travelled extensively in Europe and the Caribbean, and lived for long periods in Bermuda, France, Switzerland, Denmark and Italy. Writing, she feels, is a full-time craft, but she has found time between books and travel to design and make her own clothes and to indulge her hobby of international cookery. “

Some of her children’s books were published in the UK, as were the two horse titles, but they are not easy to find.  Both titles are easy to find in the US, though copies are usually ex-library.

Many thanks to Susan Bourgeau for the pictures and information.

Biblography

Photograph from the jacket of Magnificent Barb