A safe place to hide: Walter Farley’s Black Stallion series and the art of Ruth Sanderson
1986 – desperately seeking a safe place to hide, a timid, eight-year-old girl picked up a book, and tentatively stepped inside. That little girl was me, and the book was Walter Farley’s Man O’ War. It would be many years before I understood that the hours I’d spent reading and re-reading the twenty books in Farley’s famous Black Stallion series were a means of dissociation–of separating myself from a world that felt too terrifying for a child to deal with–and a way to quiet a confused and angry mind.
The stories drew me into a protective cove where horses ran free in my mind. However, the paintings that graced the front cover of each book were as special to me as the stories themselves. I spent hours staring into the cover art which brought Farley’s stories and characters to life with such exquisite detail. Tracing the outline of each horse with my finger, gently stroking the face or touching the muzzle, I could almost feel the horses themselves. I spent hours looking at each cover–what was beyond that distant horizon? Then I stepped into each painting, passing through the paper cover and into the world of the horses I’d grown to love.
Walter Farley’s story of Man O’ War was the first book of his that I read. It was a gift from a friend in fifth grade. I was not much of a reader then at all and it took me four months to work my way through the 300+ page book. But by the second reading, I’d already improved greatly, and soon developed what became a lifelong love of reading!
Although partially fictionalized, Farley expertly weaves the the true story of the great race horse, with the life of the stable boy, Danny, a fictional character through which Farley shared the facts of Man O’ War’s life in a way that young his young readers could easily relate to. Set against the backdrop of America at the beginning of the twentieth century, the book touched on some important history–WWI, the Spanish flu pandemic–and gave a glimpse of the Thoroughbred industry at the beginning of what many consider the “golden age” of American Thoroughbred racing. This book piqued my interest not only in reading, but also horse racing, and history.
I read this copy (pictured) of Man O’ War so many times, it finally fell apart. I carefully taped it together and put it away for safe keeping, replacing it with a new copy to read. This is the painting I spent the most time gazing into, dreaming about the historic Kentucky bluegrass, the greatest horse that ever set foot on a racetrack, and what it would be like if I could take the place of the boy in the picture.
After Man O’ War, I started at the beginning of the series when I discovered a copy of The Black Stallion on a shelf of giveaway books in my fifth grade classroom.
I read every word in each book, including the front matter, which is where I discovered the name of the artist who’d created the cover paintings for each book–Ruth Sanderson.
With no internet in those days, all I knew about Sanderson’s work was the book covers I loved so much. I had no idea how long she’d been painting, where she lived, or any other art she created.
Every few weeks I’d save up my chore allowance and buy the next book in the series. Each trip to the book store bringing such excitement, I couldn’t wait to see the next book’s cover.
The surprise of discovering the picture on the next cover was as exciting to me as reading a new story in the series. The book store had much of the series on the shelf, but I’d be careful to only look at the cover of the book I was purchasing that day, not wanting to spoil the surprise for next time.
Following the list printed inside each book, I knew the title I needed before I arrived at the store. The hardest part was when the store didn’t have the next book in stock. Seeing my disappointment, the clerk would encourage me to select a different book that day.
“We have a bunch of these books back there,” she’d offer. But I never took her up on it. I had to wait for the next one in the series.
Even on those days I had to order and wait for the book I wanted, I was still excited to go to the shelf and look at the books I’d already purchased. Their covers so pristine, colors still so sharp, no creases or wear of any kind. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t keep my books looking brand new.
Over thirty years later, when it was time to find an artist to create a cover for my memoir, Follow Me, Friend, I thought about Ruth Sanderson and those wonderful paintings she’d created. I had no idea how old she’d been in the 1980s…was she at the beginning of her career then? Or was she near the end? I looked online and found not only was she very much alive, but still painting book covers!
Would she paint the cover for Follow Me, Friend? A famous and successful artist like her surely would be too expensive or simply not have time to take on a project for an unknown indie author. But my best friend encouraged me to ask anyway. What did I have to lose?
I sent Ruth an email explaining my project and why I wanted her to do the cover. She agreed, we struck a deal, and the rest is history!
Imagine if that little girl all those years ago gazing at the covers of her favorite books had only known that someday, things would get better, someday she would understand why her world felt so terrifying, someday she would be able to heal from her trauma–and someday she would write a book and on the cover would be a horse, painted by the same artist who created those beautiful, magical paintings she’d lived in as a child.
I can see her face beaming at the thought of it.
Today, I celebrate the healing that has come to me and the child I once was. I honor the little girl who felt the need to escape all those years ago, and together we celebrate with a book cover made just for her.
Here it is, the official cover reveal for my upcoming memoir, Follow Me, Friend. Cover art by Ruth Sanderson. Thank you, Ruth!
Original cover art by Ruth Sanderson http://www.ruthsandersonart.comCover design by Mallory Rock – Rock Solid Book Design http://www.rocksolidbookdesign.com
I hope you love the cover as much as I do. And I hope the young child that still lives inside you looks at this painting and can feel the warmth of the horse’s gaze, and wonders what adventures lie beyond the fence, beyond the hills, beyond the trees where a little girl has found a safe place to come out of hiding, grow, and heal.
Thank you for sharing in this important moment with me! Follow Me, Friend will be released in late October 29. Special limited time deal pre-orders are sold out. For other special promotions, click HERE. The print and ebook are available from Amazon HERE
Peace to you, gentle friend. Thank you for supporting this indie author, your reading and sharing my work means the world to me.
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