Russell Gordon Carter

Shaggy, the horse from Wyoming

Sutton House, ltd. , Los Angeles, San Francisco [etc.], c1935, illus. E. R. Bradley, 152 pp

Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston MA, 1939, 151+ pp

“Gordon, an American soldier in Europe in 1918, is seperated from his sorrel horse Shaggy when the horse gets
mange, but he vows to find the horse before returning to America.”

Russell Gordon Carter (1892-1957) wrote widely for children, and wrote two prize winning novels, of which Shaggy, which is as far as I know his one horse story, was one.  Dedicated to “my shaggy little sorrel horse, whose soft, inquiring muzzle seemed constantly at my shoulder while I wrote this story of our golden days together," it won the Julia Ellsworth Ford Foundation for "the Encouragement of Juvenile Literature in America".  Russell Gordon Carter was born in Trenton, New Jersey, and was educated at Harvard.  He worked to pay his study, tutoring and waiting at table.  Whilst at Harvard he was editor of the Harvard Illustrated.  During the First World War he served in France, an experience which informed his writing.

Once he returned from the War, he worked at The Youth’s Companion until 1926, after which he earned his living as a freelance writer.  His book Three Points of Honour won a $4,000 prize from Little, Brown Publishing Co. and Boys' Life Magazine.  Scout novels were one of his specialities, and he also wrote the 12 book Patriot Lad series.  

Finding the book:  the book is easy to find in the USA.  It was not printed in the UK.

Sources and links:

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

Catherine C Fullerton’s website about her father, Russell Gordon Carter

Many thanks to Alison MacCallum for the photograph .

Bibliography - horse books only