The Pony Problem
E.P. Dutton, New York, 1977, cover art by Susan Jeffers
Scholastic, pb, 1977
Jean Monroe of 10007 Maryellen Lane lived in a house which looked just like any
other
house, apart from the fact that the front lawn was used for grazing by
Hopscotch,
Jean’s newly arrived, won-in-a-contest, chocolate palomino pony.
Jean found herself in a downhill battle to ward of the S.P.C.A. (called by nosy
neighbours)
and to dispose continual “piles of poop.” Mrs. Monroe understood
her daughter’s dilemma,
but even she couldn’t turn around an obviously hopeless
contest.
Barbara Holland (1933-2010) lived, when she wrote The Pony Problem, in a Pennsylvania
town that is “a kind of children’s dream-world, where all girls have ponies” - including
her own daughter, on whose experiences she based the book. “My daughter’s pony
was such a frightful pest, getting into the house, trampling the neighbors’ gardens,
or vanishing for hours into the surrounding community, with me trotting along the
roads afoot after her, carrot in one hand and clothesline in the other, that I felt
I ought to get some good out of it all.”
Barbara Holland won prizes for her poetry when she was at school, but converted to
prose when she had a living to earn. She wrote several books, over wide ranging
fields: The Joy of Drinking, and Gentleman’s Blood - a History of Duelling being
just two, besides of course her one pony book, The Pony Problem. She lived in Virginia:
two of her hobbies were smoking and drinking, there not being a lot else to get
up to when you lived on a mountain. Her mother was a children’s book author (Marion
Holland); her father a lawyer in FD Roosevelt’s administration, and she was brought
up in Chevy Chase.
Finding the book: The Pony Problem is relatively easy to find in America. It didn’t
have a British publication (as far as I know - there is mention of a Penguin edition,
but I haven’t found any solid evidence of a copy from a British seller), but if anyone
knows for definite that there is one, please let me know. From the ISBN quoted,
I assume it’s a Puffin paperback, but a pretty obscure one if so.
Many thanks to Susan Bourgeau for all her help with the book and its contents.
Sources:
New York Times’ obituary of Barbara Holland, 13 September 2010
Loudon Times’ obituary of Barbara Holland, 14 September 2010
Barbara Holland’s website
An article in the Washington Post on Barbara Holland - which I do recommend you read
as it gives an excellent idea of what Barbara Holland is like - quite something,
it has to be said, and about as un-PC as possible.
Being 70 - the View From Up Here - an article by Barbara Holland
