The Buckboard Stranger

by Stephen W. Meader

The Stranger came by moonlight, riding a western buckboard behind a big dun horse. To Chuck Randall and his friend Barney Burke, this man in the ten-gallon hat and Texas boots was a figure of romance and adventure. In the sleepy New Hampshire village he created a new kind of excitement, and through most of that summer his gambling and horse racing kept the place in a turmoil. How the boys helped solve the mystery of the stranger's background supplies a thrilling climax to the story. Many things in this book will remind young readers of such other Meader favorites as Red Horse Hill and Who Rides In The Dark? In addition to its fast moving action this gives a faithful picture of life in a small New England mill town in the early years of this century. Boys of today will find Chuck and Barney as real as their own friends and will share their adventures which are told here in unsurpassed fashion by a master storyteller.

Paperback

First published June 1, 1954

About the author

Stephen W. Meader (May 2, 1892 – July 18, 1977) was the author of over forty novels for young readers. His optimistic stories generally tended to either concern young men developing independent businesses in the face of adversity, or else young men caught up in adventures during different periods in American history.

Meader graduated from Haverford College in Philadelphia in 1913, and initially worked in Newark, New Jersey as a cruelty officer with the Essex County Children's Aid Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and by 1915 was working for the Big Brother Movement. After working for a Chicago publishing house in 1916, he took a position with the Circulation Department of the Curtis Publishing Company in Philadelphia, eventually reaching the position of Editor of the Sales Division publications. His first novel, The Black Buccaneer, was the first juvenile publication of the newly founded Harcourt, Brace and Howe.

Reviews

[Raymond Bial]

Wonderful novel about two boys and the long-ago summer when a "buckboard stranger" mysteriously arrives in their small New Hampshire town. This novel is charming, nostalgic, and at times quite suspenseful.

[James]

Meader writes a story reminiscent of his childhood and blows it big time. It's missing the mutual aid and assistance theme that dominates many of his stories, the language is corny (gosh, shucks!) and it uses some ugly racial stereotypes. 50's boy literature that will make you thankful for modern YA.

[Naomi McCullough]

I remember this as being a fun YA mystery, with two best friends trying to figure out the secrets of the stranger in town.