horses

An interview with Hillary DePiano, a fiction and non-fiction author best known for her play, The Love of Three Oranges, and her e-commerce blog, The Whine Seller. Hillary is a collector of both My Little Pony and She-Ra: Princess of Power toys and has authored collectible guides to both (the MLP book is The My Little Pony Collector’s Inventory: A Complete Checklist of All US Ponies, Playsets and Accessories from 1981 to 1992). She is also a frequent contributor to the blog at My Little Pony Collecting.com.

Hillary DePiano With Project Pony 'Silver' At My Little Pony Fair, 2008

Hillary, when did you first fall in love with My Little Pony?

I was pretty young when My Little Pony first hit stores but I think it was a given that I was going to like them from the start. There was a stable that offered pony rides near my house growing up and I was a frequent visitor there until they turned it into condos. There were also unicorns on my childhood wallpaper long before MLP existed so I may have been conditioned from birth. While I am not sure quite what distinguished them from any other toy I had as a child, I know they remained my favorite toy long after I had tossed others aside because I didn’t have to dress them. I am a very low patience threshold when it comes to putting on tiny doll clothes and I used to feel really weird about leaving my Barbies naked so I just never played with them because they took too long to dress. Ponies had clothing but if I got bored before I finished dressing them, I could just leave them naked because horses’ aren’t supposed to wear clothes!

Another thing I think cannot be discounted was the affect of the cartoon show. My Little Pony Tales was often very weird and very dark. I think that strange mix of sugary sweet from the toys but weird and dark from the cartoon series really captured my imagination as a child and made me keep returning to them again and again. I think that unlike a lot of cartoons from the 80s and early 90s, instead of advertising the new toys as most shows did, the MLP show really just made me like the pony toys I already had all the more.

When did you consider yourself a collector?

The first time I ever even though of MLP being something collectible was when I saw some MLP figures at a doll show I went to with my mother. I was still pretty young and all the ponies they had for sale I already had so I didn’t buy any but that planted the seeds. I looked at those MLP figures that were only a year or so old alongside all these dolls, some of which were hundreds of years old, and an association was born. Even then I started to realize that these were my generation’s collectibles.

The real moment I became a collector came many years later, however, when a toy store called Lionel Kiddie City was going out of business. My mom and I found hundreds of mint in box MLP items, some from the very first years of the toy line, and bought a ton of stuff I didn’t have. I was older at this point and I came to the sad realization that I probably shouldn’t open a lot of what we bought that day because it would probably be worth more someday if I left it in the box.

DePiano's MLP Collector's Inventory Guide Book

I could kick myself, because if we had bought everything in the store back then, now, it would be worth over 10 times what we would have paid. Items that are worth hundreds of dollars today were on clearance for pennies! We could have make thousands of dollars. But there was no eBay back then so I couldn’t conceive of the online community of collectors that exists today so there was no reason to buy anything with the anticipation of selling it. So as much as we did buy, we left a lot of really good stuff behind.

But at the time, at that awkward age between kid and teenager, I sat there surrounded by toys I couldn’t wait to open rationally knowing I really shouldn’t open them. That was the moment when I became a collector before a kid with toys. I was thinking more of the future value of the items over the desire to open the packages.

Describe your collecting habits… Are you methodical, with a list of “needs” or do you serendipitously discover & buy? Do you own multiples of the same pony or piece or do you replace pieces so that you only keep the pieces in best conditions? Do you find your collection spreading & sprawling, branching out to include other related items (knock-offs, other plastic ponies, horses in general, toys from the same maker, time frame, etc.)

I decided long ago to only collect parts of the My Little Pony line instead of everything. Many of the subsections of the main toy line (such as Petite Ponies, Dream Beauties, Plush, etc) I sold off long ago when I decided to focus only on the basic ponies and playsets. There are a ton of MLP items and I felt like it was insane to try to get everything so I focused on certain elements. As large as my collection is, you definitely couldn’t say I had a complete collection.

I used to keep two full sets of MLP but I sold one entire collection off so that I now only keep one of each pony. This decision was both financial and a real space saver. Ponies are small but when you have them in the quantities I do, boy, they can start to take over.

I run across a lot of ponies when selling items on eBay through PricedNostalgia.com and I always make sure to check my collection before I sell anything. If I come across something in better shape than what I have, I do a trade and keep the better one. I also make sure to keep anything I didn’t already have in my collection. The one exception is if the lesser condition pony is one from when I was a kid, I usually keep my old pony as well as the nicer one.

Hillary in Priced Nostalgia's Booth At MLP Fair, 2008

As I get older, I find that I spend more time streamlining my collection rather than expanding it to include more. My Little Pony is a massive toyline spanning several decades so if you really wanted to collect every single thing, it could easily be a lifetime quest. I find myself making decisions based on space a lot of the time. For instance, I recently decided to sell off all of my mint in box pony items. Perhaps this preference stems from the Lionel Kiddie City incident, but I have always preferred the loose ponies to those MIB. I like to be able to touch them and the mint in box ponies are worth a ton so it just made more sense to me to sell off the MIB for the money and keep the loose ponies that take up less space. I also don’t aggressively seek out international or variants like some collectors. If one crosses my path and I like it, I’ll keep it but I won’t get involved in crazy bidding wars over a rare piece.

But some collectors only collect mint in box items. There are some sellers who focus on just a single pony, getting every possible variation of that one character. I think one of the big appeals of My Little Pony collecting is that there are a lot of different ways to collect so no two collections are exactly the same.

Tell us the story of one of your collecting ‘holy crap’ moments — best deal you ever got & thought you’d pee your pants, the most you’ve ever paid for a piece, the longest lengths you’ve ever gone to get a piece for your My Little Pony collection.

The Lionel toy store find was a really great Holy Crap moment but another great one was pretty recent. My husband and I were at a flea market and we are both pretty good a playing it cool when we spot something rare but I saw a rare pony mint in box. I asked the seller how much casually and actually handed her a wad money before she had even answered with the price. This should have been a sign to her that I was a little over eager but I only paid $10 for this pony that I later sold on eBay for just shy of $400. You see ponies so rarely at flea markets or garage sales that when you do, it’s hard not to grab them really quickly like another collector is breathing down your neck. When I was younger and we didn’t see any ponies on a flea market trip, I would assume another collector had been through first. Now I think people are just smarter about their value.

My dad is my favorite person to go pony hunting with. He is totally useless at spotting them and refuses to rummage in bins to look for them. But he loves it when I find one I didn’t have before. Every time we would get back into the car he would say, “So did we get any we didn’t have before?” and would eagerly examine whichever one was “new.” It always made me feel like we were a team because he got so excited for one we didn’t have. My husband is also getting rather good at it. My brother-in-law called to say that he picked up an MLP item for me at a garage sale and, upon hearing the description, my husband was able to identify the pony by name. I think he may have lost street cred for life with his brother for that but whenever he busts out a random pony fact he earns major brownie points with me.

I have never really paid ridiculous amounts for a pony. To me, part of the fun of collecting is getting the pony I want for the price I want to pay. I try to leverage trades, coupons, gift certificates, credit card points, whatever I can. It means that my collection grows more slowly than the collection of someone who just outright buys what they want instead of waiting for the deal but, for me, the thrill of the hunt is half the fun of collecting. The only time I ever just outright buy a pony is if it is at a convention where I can physically touch and examine the pony before I purchase. I am usually willing to pay a little more in person if I get to really get a good look at it in person.

Is your collection complete? Are you still searching for a ‘Holy Grail’ piece?

Since new My Little Pony items are still in stores to this day, it’s impossible for anyone’s My Little Pony collection to be complete. New ponies come out every day. Mine will never be complete. I tend to pick a random pony to obsess over and that becomes my current grail. Then, once I get that pony, I pick a new one. I get an $100 eBay voucher once a year from my credit card so I always spend that on an MLP item since that is just a bonus so completing sets I am after usually moves at a rate of about a pony a year.

DiPiano At The 2005 My Little Pony Convention

For the longest time, my grail was Twice-As-Fancy Munchy. Most ponies have flowers or other cutsie things on them but Munchy has hot dogs and hamburgers on her. I was amused by the randomness of her and was after her for a long time until I snagged her at the 2007 convention. My current obsession is getting all of the Twice-As-Fancy baby ponies. These were a mail order only offer so they are hard to find and, as such, more expensive. I just ordered what should be the final one of those on eBay about a week ago.

Then once that set is complete, I will obsess over the United Kingdom exclusive male ponies, the Mountain Boys. I just used this year’s eBay voucher to get my very first one so now I am going to work on bit by bit, getting the rest of the set.

And so it goes, bit by bit, as every collector knows…

Every so often, I feel like I need to step completely out of my element and explore a world of collecting that’s completely foreign to me. Enough with the awesome old vinyl records, and the inspiring superheroes. Put the vintage filmstrips and modern DVDs to the side. I know all of this stuff – this stuff is comfortable.

Now, put me into a world of pretty horses and positive reinforcement, and you’ll see some sparks – usually as I ricochet ignorantly off the sides.

Having spent a good portion of the last few years with a pre-teen girl partially under my charge, I’ve been submerged in Club Penguin and Stardoll and Littlest Pet Shop and Webkinz and Little Girl Online Fad #35, so I’m no stranger to the asphyxiating pinkness. Lord, the pinkness. My computer was sacrificed many an evening to that altar of her digital collecting of accessories for her imaginary apartments, or outfits for her rail-thin paperdolls – though I readily admit that Club Penguin’s fishing game was something that I returned to even in my own free time. That game was tight.

Enter Bella Sara, a game that began in Denmark in 2006, created to be a more feminine, constructive alternative to destructive Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh monster fighting games. Instead of enslaving and summoning violent creatures to tear each other limb from limb, you gently take care of digital equines as they shower you with phrases of positive reinforcement. They might not appeal directly to your average 20-something male blog writer, but I easily see the merits, as I’m all for the idea of empowering the fairer sex through whatever means available. The arbitrary, cruel social hierarchy of 3rd grade girls rivals the most complex of your prime-time TV shows.

“Make a plan and commit completely to it.”

“Your spirit is strong and noble. Wear it like a crown of glory.”

“I will be your lucky star. Take a chance and try something new.”

If they were catering to my demographic, or more specifically, ME, they’d read more like. “Your hairline isn’t THAT bad!”, or “That Batman action figure isn’t going to make you less lonely. Invest in a home gym instead!”

The core of Bella Sara is physically collected in the form of trading cards – each card having a unique code which can be entered into the Bella Sara website to varying ends. Even if you’re not regularly attached to the internet, the cards themselves can be used for a variety of oldschool card games.

The eighth and most recent set of cards is called ‘Treasures’, and consists of 55 different regular cards, and 55 ‘extra rare’ cards that are variants of the regular cards, but printed on a shiny foil. While most of these cards are horses that can be added to your online stable, a few of these cards represent trinkets than can be added to your 2-room ‘apartment’ online. For each card you enter online, you get 50 ‘horseshoes’, which is the standard Bella Sara currency. If you’re lucky enough to get shiny card, it’s worth many more horseshoes. All of this is kept track of in an easy to navigate interface. There’s no monthly membership fee, as with many online communities.

Which is worth mentioning : Bella Sara is a completely safe environment, as there’s no anonymous interaction with other players. More than a few times, I’ve had to usher young eyes away from the computer when an online game went sour and foul or threatening language was used. This is an impossibility with Bella Sara. You’re working for yourself – not to compete or show off to your online ‘friends’ – itself being a quiet re-enforcement of the ‘girl power!’ message.

If you need a fast fix of horseshoes, a parent can always purchase them with a credit card and real money, or the player can earn small amounts of ‘em by playing the wide variety of online games. It’s all a slow accumulation of digital wealth, and ultimately converting it into a digital collection of fancy stuff to adorn your apartment with. As is more and more common online, these virtual components are essentially purchased with real money (be it directly or through packs of cards) and are the final result of play and the subsequent accumulation. The whole ‘collecting’ mindset is prevalent, though there’s definitely a healthy distribution of life-positive messages and dexterity building puzzles that are woven into every activity. Daily tasks, such as taking care of your own horse, imply a certain degree of responsibility through a rewards system, but there’s no real penalty for abandoning your pet, either. It’s not like a Tamagotchi, where you log in one day and find the desiccated corpse of your once-beloved Sweet Pepper.

(As a side note, your own horse’s name must be chosen from a set combination of nouns and adjectives, removing much of the fun I had while naming my horse tremendously obscene things while playing Horse Life for the Nintendo DS.)

Each pack of cards includes 5 game cards (with the potential for rare cards inserted), a tattoo card, a checklist card backed with ideas for card games, and a sticker card. Over ten packs of cards that I opened, only about 10% were doubles – and while doubles are potentially disappointing for the completist, they’re still worth at least 50 horseshoes online, and can easily be converted into something completely new – or traded with friends.

The newest introduction to the Bella Sara world, and what initially caught my interest, was their recent collection of Miniatures. Much like packs of cards, each Miniature pack contains one flocked, rubber horse and a code for more online accumulation. I have to say that I’m a big fan of anything flocked, from the original Masters of the Universe Mossman to the recent (and relatively uncommon) Kathie Olivas Dunny. Something about the tactile sensation of flocking is very soothing to me.

There are 20 different horses, each about 1” tall. For every code that you enter, you get a different horse statue to decorate your house with, further cementing the strange bond between the real and virtual worlds, and creating a nifty little display of fuzzy horses for your own living spaces.

It’s adorable, it’s inexpensive, and it actually carries a genuinely positive message, which seems to set it far above those online pursuits that are exclusively about purchasing things or being pretty. I mean, get outside and kick a ball around, but if your kid is going to play online, this is the right direction to send her.

A reader sent me an email requesting advice on establishing the value of some items. It’s not the first time the I, or any of the other writers here, has received an email of this sort; we have lots of folks asking us for help. However, to my knowledge, none of us are appraisers and so we are not comfortable giving any pricing info or item evaluations. I’m not sure what the others do, but I generally write back with a website or collecting group as a resource — or even just with the standard ‘check eBay’ bit. But this request was special…

Brenda in Greensboro wrote:

Hi! My 15 year old daughter is an avid Walter Farley reader. She recently bought a box of broken horse statues and old Walter Farley books. The dust jackets are not pristine but her copy of The Black Stallion and Satan is actually autographed! (She also ended up with an autographed copy of Sea Star by Marguerite Henry and the illustrator Wesley Dennis.) Can you advise us? She wanted an original copy but she’s nervous not knowing whether the copy she bought to read is better off sealed in plastic or sold to a collector. How do we go about establishing the value of this item? (Your article popped up while doing a search on the internet – hence the hope that you might be able to advise us.) Thanks for any help you can offer.

As a former horse-loving girl lady, I find this so exciting that I’m actually jealous!

I decided that a simple guide was long over due, and that I’d use Brenda’s daughter’s finds as the example.

It should be noted, again, that I am not a professional appraiser; and that these are only my opinions. I won’t go so far as to remind you to check with your physician before following any of this, but I will say that these are suggestions based on my own practices & experiences and as such they may be utterly meaningless to you. In other words, I’m just telling you what I would do and as ‘free advice’, it’s may be worth exactly what you paid for it. And I do hope others, columnists and you readers, will chime in with your own thoughts on this too.

Disclaimer out of the way, we will begin.

13 Key Points On The Subjective Matter Of ‘Should I Sell It..?’

1 Yes, these signed books are more valuable and so need to be cared for. This is true for many rare books, old books, out of print books, first editions, limited editions or runs, and any other case were number of available copies is less than the demand for them. It doesn’t mean she can’t read them now — but there will come a day when that simple act will have its risks with brittle pages, the oils of fingers damaging the signature, etc.

But there is more to value than the dollar value. I’ve written on this before many times, and this is what truly makes such evaluations of price so difficult. In this specific case I must also warn you of an all-too-familiar problem that nearly every adult faces…

2 I really, really regret giving away, & occasionally selling, (almost) all of my horse collectibles, books and figurines. You may think you’ve outgrown them, but then there you are one day, buying them all ‘back’ in some fashion or another. In this case, these books will not only have sentimental value of ‘horse books’ but also that of ‘discovery’.

3 And let’s face it, once your daughter is an adult these books will likely only have increased in value which means ‘buying them back’ will be much more expensive. (As long as the world keeps producing horse lovers, there will always be horse fans and collectors of all things horse.)

So as her Momma, I ask you to help counsel her in that regard — and yes, that may mean you’re to store the boxes until she’s moved into her own home where it’s now safe for her to unpack them or is prepared to properly store them herself.

4 But the bottom line of all of this is that pretty much anything we own has its price. We love our homes, our collections, our prized belongings, but if someone offered us the right amount… We’d at least consider selling. The trick here is to find out what the item is worth on the market today and see if that amount is your sell-out price (or greater). If not, you’ll want to keep it.

I can’t help you and your daughter with such a determination, but I can help you discover the ‘today’s market value’ part of the equation.

My parents wisely taught me that the value of any item is what a person is willing to pay for it. This is true for anything, including collectibles. This is most easily seen at an auction. In the case of popular items the value is the highest price willing to be paid for it, and non-desirable items don’t sell at all (or must be thrown in a lot with other items just to get rid of it.) This is why most folks suggest that you begin your search for finding an item’s value at eBay.

5 First you do searches for the exact same title that you have, both current listings and closed auctions (the latter is where you’ll see the end results with final price bid/paid). In the case of autographed books, repeat the search for other titles and items signed by the author. Again, both current listings and closed auctions. Search for ‘autographed’ and ’signature’ too — and, if you’d like, misspellings of the author’s name. Given the rarity of any ite, you may need to repeat this search over a matter of a few weeks (or, save the search on eBay to be notified of new listings) to actually see matching or similar items.

6 You can also use Faded Giant Books to get auction results. Some folks swear by the info, but I myself can’t trust the sparse or all-together-missing conditions information so I use the Faded Giant info and compare it to the results of the searches I did myself.

7 Next check book dealers, via Abe & Alibris for example, to see what they are asking. You can also use BookFinder.Com to help with this. (Note that you can ‘toggle’ to search for a signed copy.) Generally, book dealer prices are higher than auction starting and closing prices as those sellers are willing to wait for their price. (This is also true of most antique shops, and these ‘higher prices’ are known as ‘retail prices’ rather than auction prices. While auction prices often make the news for huge bidding sale sums, the auction prices are completely dependent upon who has shown up to bid that day and are extremely volatile because of this.)

8 You can also check collector guides, but please note that these prices are generally perceived to be quite a bit higher than normal selling prices. Theories vary on why this is, but as a general rule, I consider the prices listed in collector books to be closer to insurance/replacement costs rather than reflective of the actual prices paid at auction or even retail.

9 With all your research you’ll likely notice a range of prices, even for items in relatively the same conditions. Popularity & price fluctuate, sometimes for no seen reason, other times, such as with conditions, it’s obvious to see why; but all of this will give you a ballpark. This is basically what an appraiser does, only they have enough experiences from which to draw from in terms of conditions, authenticity, and prices — and they have access to services & databases with recent sales information.

10 Of course, all of this comes down to the validity of the signatures. This can be done online first, as there are sites with images of signatures. (For example, Purple House Press & Faded Giant for authors, Ask Art for artist signatures, and Krueger Books has authors and some artists.) If it looks close to you, and your price research indicates a high enough value, then you might find it is worth having an appraiser verify and authenticate the signature for you. Some auction houses will include such authentication as part of their services. Having a certified or authenticated signature may cost you, but it will increase final price as buyers are more comfortable to bid/buy.

11 As I mentioned auction houses, I should make a few more comments about them. Auction houses or auctioneers will have fees &/or take percentages of the sale of the item, just as eBay itself does; so that’s not a reason to avoid them. In fact, it may be worth getting your item in front of buyers who respect the reputation of auction professionals to the degree that the buyers will bid higher. Don’t be intimidated by auctioneers, especially if research indicated your item is worth $100 or more. (Some houses may have even higher limits, so as always, research wisely.)

12 So now you have an idea of the book’s worth on today’s market… But it’s still up to you and your daughter to decide if this is worth selling.

Is the money worth not having the book? Is it enough money to fund more treasure hunting? Or is the thought of what price she’d pay for a copy in 2018 or 2028 too scary to contemplate?

If it were me, and this column always comes back to ‘me’ in some fashion or other, I’d say she should keep all of the goodies she’s got. She can get cheap reading copies of the autographed books at thrift stores for chump-change, read them all she wants, and store the grand ones for that ’someday’ in the future when she can regale her friends and family with the story of her discovery of such prized possessions.

13 Or she can send them to me. I’ll love them and take care of them well. Honest.

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I must have been about 9 or 10 when I got this framed horse print at a rummage sale. It’s one of the very few childhood purchases that I’ve actually saved all these years. Most of my doggie figurines, pink spaghetti ceramic cats, and toys were sold at family rummage sales years ago. And my Breyers went to my younger female cousins. But this print I saved.

Because it’s something vintage that I’ve actually owned a long time, it was one of the items I brought into the Trash or Treasure event to be appraised.

Susan Kime, Paintings & Prints Specialist at Ivey-Selkirk, had the pleasure of appraising the print. I was praised for keeping the label on the back of the print (if they only knew that we save everything at our house, they would know this only encourages the hoarding insanity), and from this label we learned the following:

Title: Early Speed
Artist: C.W. Anderson
Type of print: A Limited Edition Signed Original Lithograph
Print Maker: Associated American Artists

She wasn’t familiar with the artist — which only made me feel hideously old. After all, every little girl has to go through a horsey stage, so clearly her lack of familiarity with Anderson (whose books were published from the mid-30’s through the 60’s) was the result of having loved newer/younger horsey folks.

When Kime, the consumate professional, admitted she wasn’t familiar with the artist she looked him up in a magical art database for recent sales of his works. There she discovered that C was for Clarence, W was for William, and that my lithograph was worth approximately $100 to $150. Which I felt was rather generous for an artist most folks either have never heard about or have forgotten. (But it seems to be a fair estimation after all — maybe even low? Then again, as Dad says, it’s still there.)

But I won’t forget Anderson. And not because the print has been assigned a monetary value.

First of all, C.W. Anderson, artist turned author, is as much a part of my childhood years as Walter Farley. In fact, the Billy and Blaze series was read prior to Farley’s Black Stallion series. Of the few books I owned (versus those I read at the library), several were also by C.W. Anderson and I did keep those. And I add copies of his books whenever I spot them. So the lithograph is valued for sentimental reasons.

Second of all, Anderson’s work is beautiful. Many a horse lover will tell you that he was one of the foremost horse illustrators of the 20th century, so there’s artistic value in my print.

But the real joy in this lithograph by Anderson lies in what makes collecting fun for me.

When it comes to collecting, I generally don’t have a list or any other sort of scholarly approach. I sift through piles, stacks and racks of junk, until something — that elusive something — catches either my intellect or imagination. It would likely be easier to hunt if I had a list, or if like the crow that something was easily spotted by the eye, such as a sparkle in the sun, and I tracked it. But hunting that way it is rarely my style; nor it is necessarily my goal.

Truth be told, I like the sense of discovery of finding an object and the hunt comes in when I want to find out more. The best objects are the items I don’t know about and the stories I’ve yet to learn. Often I can be (nearly) satisfied with spotting something and spending hours researching it, following the trail (like Billy & Blaze!) of its connections to other persons, points and places — even to things I already own. Of course, if I had deeper pockets (which were not full of pet hair and lint from the washing process, but filled with dollar bills), I might not remain so content to live without these objects. But for now, as things are, I can be — or just have to be.

So when I took my C.W. Anderson lithograph down off the wall, carried it in to the appraisal event, and then returned home with it to tell you all about it, I once again had a reason to research Clarence William Anderson. And to do so was to discover him anew — this time, through more adult eyes.

Prior to his fine horse lithography, and his horsey books, Anderson was an illustrator who was clearly affected by, if not officially a part of, “the golden age of illustration”. This era is officially listed as having lasted from the 1880s until shortly after World War I, but as many of the great illustrators of this time continued to have or build great careers for another few decades, many consider its end to be 1960. Publications such as The New Yorker and The Saturday Evening Post are popular examples of such legendary illustrations and illustrators. Anderson himself did covers for The Saturday Evening Post. But, of course, my love of the risqué means I am more interested in The New Yorker…

From 1926-1934 Anderson had cartoons published in The New Yorker — and in 1935, Anderson published And So To Bed, presumably his first book. This work is clearly not for the kiddies. Thank goodness I’m no longer one.

And thank goodness I could discover something new. Even if this time I’m not so satisfied with just doing the research — I want to own this book. And perhaps a few of those New Yorker issues…

Hey, maybe I should start one of those collecting lists after all. Naw, like many collectors of C.W. Anderson’s works, I keep my eyes open for his name and snap up stuff when I see it… Adding the earlier non-horse items to my sifting and scanning is easy enough.

Now that I know it exists, I know what I’m looking for.

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When I was a little girl, I loved horses (I think most little girls do), and I was an avid reader. So it would only make sense that I would discover The Black Stallion series by Walter Farley.

In summer I would ride my bike (often pretending it was a horse) to the library, where I’d roam the stacks for books. Eventually, I’d pick out enough books to fill that banana-seat bike’s basket, and head home (perhaps whinnying on the way). The frequency of my visits varied by weather and the difficulty of the books I selected, but one thing never differed: there was always at least one copy of The Black Stallion series in that basket.

Being a voracious reader from a thrifty family, buying books wasn’t something I did. Libraries were the most practical way to ensure enough texts to sate my need — no, my greed to read. As a child, I was able to devote entire days to reading, and so, I never had late books and the fines that accompany them. It wasn’t until high school, with the added responsibility of hard classwork and my first job, that I learned the pain of overdue book fines. Once I did, I discovered the joy of cashing my pay checks (nearly litreally) at the local bookstore. Of course, by this time, I had no interest in horse stories.

Fade out on my late teen years, and in on my 30’s. I’m older, but no better off in the overdue library book department, so I have learned to be wiser in my book purchases. I regularly shop for books at rummage sales — not only for myself, but for my children. One fateful summer morning, I find a hardcover copy of The Black Stallion. But the cover is not as I remember it. Remember, I had read the library copies, so the books I had read were either dull cloth boards, or pictorial boards with the modern arch or ‘horseshoe’ shape as a window to the illustration. Here, in my hands, was a dust jacket with much more impressive art!

I paid my 50 cents (my, this was a while ago now!), and I think I whinnied with excitement.

That night, smitten not only by joy of rediscovering a long lost friend and the excitement of introducing The Black to my children, but by the artwork, I searched online for more books in the Black Stallion series.

In my searching, I discovered that I was not the only one interested in reclaiming their childhood favorites — prices can run quite high especially as many titles are now out of print. But I also learned more about the author, and this convinced me that I was justified in my obsession to get all the books.

In 1940, while working on his first book, an editor told him, “Don’t figure on making any money writing children’s books.” Farley disagreed, saying “If you can write a book that will interest children you can make a living.” He proved his point with The Black Stallion and developing it into a series that has sold over a hundred million copies in the last 60 years, complete with a fan club. At the time of his death, Farley had received over 500,000 letters from fans, and his books remain popular — so popular, that generations later, movies based on his books are being made.

Like Alec and The Black, Farley did what he loved; he dared to dream, to use his imagination, and to make the dreams reality. And he inspired others to do the same.

In 1989 when Farley passed away, his local library in Venice, Florida, designated its children’s wing the Walter Farley Literary Landmark to honor the author’s legacy and his activity in children’s reading programs. A permanent exhibit of Black Stallion memorabilia is on display there.

To make a long story short, I now own 10 books in the series, including many first editions and copies with fine dust jackets. I also have Man O’ War, the three Island Stallion books, and an elusive copy of Farley’s The Great Dane Thor… I’m still on the lookout for an autographed copy, original fan club items… Well, you know how these things happen.

But as Walter Farley himself said, “I believe half the trouble in the world comes from people asking ‘What have I achieved?’ rather than ‘What have I enjoyed?’ I’ve been writing about a subject I love as long as I can remember, horses and the people associated with them, anyplace, anywhere, anytime. I couldn’t be happier knowing that young people are reading my books. But even more important to me is that I’ve enjoyed so much the writing of them.”

And I’ve enjoyed so much the reading and collecting of them.