Hobart Donavan

Desert Stallion

Knopf, New York, 1953, illus Wlliam Riley, 181 pp.

Reprinted 1966

“Saya loves the wild grey Arabian stallion so much that he’d rather own him than any of his father Sheik
Akim Abou’s other horses, but the grey has been a menace to the tribes and is to be shot.”

Hobart Donavan (1905-1976) was a scriptwriter, who wrote for, amongst others, the Loretta Young Show.  He wrote the scripts for several films, including Escape to Burma  He was married to June Foray, who was well known for providing the voice for Rocky the Flying Squirrel on the television series The Bullwinkle Show.  

Hobart Donavan wrote one horsebook (as far as I am aware, this was the only book he wrote).  

Many thanks to Lisa Catz for the photograph.

Finding the book:  The book is easy to find, and not expensive.  It wasn’t published in the UK.

Sources and links:

IMDB on Hobart Donavan

June Foray

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

Bibliography: horse books only