Mary Calhoun

The Horse Comes First

Atheneum, New York, 1974, illus. John Gretzer, 188 pp

“Randy spends the summer with her grandfather and aunt who have harness racing horses, and finds that the
horses really do come first.”

Mary Calhoun published her first children’s book, Making the Mississippi Shout, in 1957.  She  has written over fifty children’s books, of which The Horse Comes First is a horse book. Old Man’s Whickutt’s Donkey is a re-working of a fable by Fontaine, and Cowboy Cal and the Outlaw is an early reader.

Finding the book:  all are reasonably easy to find in the USA, though Donkey is on the expensive side.  None were printed in the UK.

Sources and links:

Terri A. Wear:  Horse Stories, an Annotated Bibilography, Scarecrow Press, 1987

A little biographical information

Mary Calhoun as the Instant Grandma

Many thanks to Lisa Catz for the photographs.

Bibliography - horse books only

Old Man Whickutt’s Donkey

Parent’s magazine press, New York, 1975, illus. Tomie de Paola, 41 pp

A retelling of La Fontaine"s fable, in which a man, a boy and a donkey are on their way to the miller with a sack of
corn.  No matter who walks and who rides, they are criticized.

Cowboy Cal and the Outlaw

William Morrow & Company, 1961, illus Frank Nicholas, 48 pp.

An early reader.  Cal is a cowboy, whose pride and joy is his new saddle. Just when the saddle is broken in and
the way he likes it, he is asked to break an outlaw horse.  Unfortunately the horse takes off, complete with the
precious saddle but without Cal.  Cal pursues the horse.