Title:

The Red Pony

Genre:
Children’s
Fiction
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Subgenre:
Literary
Binding:
Hardcover
Edition:
1st
Type of Book:
Fiction
Number of Pages:
131
Number of Chapters:
4
Date Added:
2018-06-26 16:44:34
Synopsis:
The Red Pony is an episodic novella written by American writer John Steinbeck in 1933. The first three chapters were published in magazines from 1933 to 1936.[1] The full book was published in 1937 by Covici Friede.[2] The stories in the book are tales of a boy named Jody Tiflin. The book has four stories about Jody and his life on his father’s California ranch.

Chapter 1

The book’s action begins when Carl Tiflin gives his son Jody a red pony colt. Overjoyed, Jody quickly agrees to all of the conditions his father places on the gift (to feed the pony, to clean his stall, etc.). Jody is so awed at the pony’s magnificence that he decides to name him Gabilan, after the grassy and oak-dotted Gabilan Mountains that border the Salinas Valley ranch. After several weeks of training and getting to know Gabilan, Jody is told by his father that he will be allowed to ride the horse by Thanksgiving. Though the ranch hand Billy Buck assures him there would be no rain, the pony is caught in a downpour and catches what appears to be a cold after being left out to corral. Billy tries to cure the horse of its illness to no avail and finally diagnoses the illness as strangles, placing a steaming wet bag over the pony’s muzzle and entrusting Jody to watch the pony. In the night, Jody becomes sleepy in spite of his constant worry and drifts off to sleep, forgetting about the open barn door. By the time he awakens, the pony has wandered out of the barn. When Billy arrives, he deems it necessary to cut a hole in the horse’s windpipe so he can breathe. Jody stays by his side, constantly swabbing out the mucus that clogged the windpipe.
After falling asleep, Jody dreams of increasingly powerful winds and wakes up to see that the pony is gone again. Following the pony’s trail he then notices a cloud of buzzards circling over a nearby spot. Unable to reach the horse in time, he arrives while a buzzard is eating the horse’s eye. In his rage, Jody wrestles with the bird and beats it repeatedly, not stopping until he is pulled off by Billy Buck and his father, though the bird had long since died. The story overall deals with ideas regarding the fallibilities of adults and the entrance into manhood, and the inevitability of death for all living things.



This appears to be a first illustrated addition that was published in 1945.
Author:
John Steinbeck
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Publisher:
The Viking Press
Country:
United States
Place of Printing:
The United States Of America
Publication Date:
1945-06-01
Publication Year:
1945
Copyright Year:
1938
Number of Copies:
1
Illustrator:
Wesley Dennis
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Language:
English
Publisher Location:
New York
Special Edition:
Yes
Automatic Estimated Value:
~$11.78
Automatic Estimated Date:
2026-02-11
Date Added:
2018-06-26 16:44:34

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