Joseph Wharton Lippincott

The Red Roan Pony

The Penn Publishing Company,  Philadelpia, 1934, illus Lynn Bogue Hunt, 320 pp.
Revised edition: Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1951, illus C W Anderson, 218 pp. (right)

A circus mare has escaped:  Jimmie tames her red roan colt, and calls him Reddy.  He wants the horse for his
own, but when he sees how healthy the little girl Bess becomes when she rides the colt, he gives him to her.
Reddy becomes a show horse, but after he is injured and can no longer compete, Bess sends him back.  Jimmie
then has to decide whether to keep him or let him roam free again.

Joseph Wharton Lippincott (1887-1996) wrote numerous animal stories, amongst which was one horse story:  The Red Roan Pony.  The astute reader of the American section of this site will have noticed the Lippincott name coming up frequently as a publisher:  the firm saw its originas in 1792, as a Philadelphia bookstall.  Joseph Wharton Lippincott was the son of J Bertram Lippincott and the third generation to work at the family business.  Joseph Wharton Lippincott served the firm for fifty years, until his retirement in 1958, as President from 1928-1947, and as Chairman of the Board after that.  

In 1937, he founded the Joseph W Lippincott Award for Outstanding Librarianship.  It is an annual award, presented to a “librarian for distinguished service to the profession of librarianship”.

Finding the book:  Both versions are reasonably easy to find.  The book wasn’t published in the UK.

Sources and links:

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

Wikipedia on Joseph Wharton Lippincott

The history of Lippincott

Bibliography - horse books only