Dorothy Lyons

Born in Michigan in 1907. Pursued a secretarial career and also worked for the Red Cross. She loved horses and wrote 12 pony novels set in various equestrian fields from racing to showing to polo. Also bred Connemara ponies and was president of the American Connemara Pony society.

Many of her books were illustrated by the great Wesley Dennis, which makes them very collectable. Unfortunately a lot of her books tend to be very hard to find and/or expensive which makes acquiring a full collection very costly.

More on the author can be found on the Bookthink website.

Connie McGuire Series:
Historical horse series set in America's Great Depression era.

1) SILVER BIRCH
(HARCOURT, BRACE & CO 1939)
ILLUSTRATED BY JOHN AUSTIN TAYLOR
Reprinted in hardback a number of times.
Fairly rare in the US, very rare outside the States.
SUMMARY: Connie McGuire longs for a horse of her own, but with the Depression hitting the country hard there is no money for such luxuries. She decides the only way to get a horse is to capture the elusive Silver Birch, a beautifully Arabian mare which was abused and then abandoned and now runs free. But many have tried to capture the mare and failed. Can Connie succeed?

2) MIDNIGHT MOON
(HARCOURT, BRACE & CO 1941)
ILLUSTRATED BY W. C. NIMS
Reprinted in hardback a number of times.
Fairly rare in the US, very rare outside the States.

3) GOLDEN SOVEREIGN
(HARCOURT, BRACE & CO 1946)
ILLUSTRATED BY WESLEY DENNIS
Reprinted in paperback a number of times by Scholastic
Easy to find in the USA.
SUMMARY: Can Connie tame the wild streak in Golden Sovereign, the beautiful but wilful son of Silver Birch?

4) COPPER KHAN
(HARCOURT, BRACE & CO 1960)
ILLUSTRATED BY WESLEY DENNIS
(UK 1ST ED MUSEUM PRESS 1952)
Rare
SUMMARY: Connie rescues and nurses back to health Copper Khan, a racehorse with a broken leg. But is he good enough to race?

Collectors Info:
Golden Sovereign is the only one really easy to find due to it having been reprinted in paperback a number of times, even so non-American collectors may not be able to find a copy outside of America. The other are all very hard to find anywhere but the States, and Copper Khan is rare, even there.

Ginny Series:
Not to be confused with the British series of same name!

1) JAVA JIVE
(HARCOURT, BRACE & CO 1955)
ILLUSTRATED BY WESLEY DENNIS (FRONTISPIECE)
Very rare
SUMMARY: Ginny longs for a pony of her own and when a stray pony wanders into the family paddock and she is able to have the pony on loan, it is a dream come true! But there is more excitement in store when Sugar has a foal and Ginny has young Java Jive to nurture and train.

2) SMOKE RINGS
(HARCOURT, BRACE & CO 1960)
ILLUSTRATED BY WESLEY DENNIS (FRONTISPIECE)
A German edition produced entitled SMOKY
Rare.
SUMMARY: Thanks to courageously helping a stranger, Ginny is now the proud owner of the fantastic TB Smoke Rings. Can the pair of them fulfil her dreams to join the Olympic Team?

Collectors Info:
Unfortunately both these are hard to get hold of, even in their native USA, especially Java Jive which is also usually very expensive too.

Other Pony Books:

RED EMBERS
(HARCOURT, BRACE & CO 1948)
ILLUSTRATED BY WESLEY DENNIS
Rare
SUMMARY: Polo story about a girl and her pony Red Embers

HARLEQUIN HULLABALLOO
aka BLUEGRASS CHAMPION
(HARCOURT, BRACE & CO 1949)
ILLUSTRATED BY WESLEY DENNIS
Reprinted under the title of Bluegrass Champion.
Can sometimes be found in the UK.
SUMMARY: Set in the world of Saddlebred showing. Harlequin is a trick horse turned 5 gaiter. He also happens to be one of the first spotted horses to show in the classes - and as such faces prejudice from people who don't approve of his colour.
NB. Has a descripton of 'tail nicking' a surgical procedure which produces the artificially high tail position seen in theses horses - many readers may find this unpleasant.

DARK SUNSHINE
(HARCOURT, BRACE & CO 1951)
ILLUSTRATED BY WESLEY DENNIS
Reprinted in hardback and paperback.
The paperback is easy to find in the USA, the first edition rarer. Outside the US, not often seen.
SUMMARY: After being crippled by Polio, Blythe feels her life is over. But then she rescues the mare Dark Sunshine from a landslide and finds she has something to live for again.

BLUE SMOKE
(HARCOURT, BRACE & CO 1953)
ILLUSTRATED BY WESLEY DENNIS
Reprinted more than once in both hardback and paperback.Also a German edition entitled BLUE SMOKE UND ANDY
SUMMARY: Andy must solve the mystery of her QH stallion Blue Smoke's ownership if she is to keep him from being claimed by an unscrupulous man.

BRIGHT WAMPUM
(HARCOURT, BRACE & CO 1958)
ILLUSTRATED BY WESLEY DENNIS
Rare.
SUMMARY: Merry longs to buy the Appaloosa mare Bright Wampum and decides to try and make the money by riding in rodeos.

PEDIGREE UNKNOWN
(HARCOURT, BRACE & CO 1973)
ILLUSTRATED BY WESLEY DENNIS
There was a Book Club Edition, not sure about a paperback reprint however as haven't come across one.
Can be found in the UK.
SUMMARY: Story for older teenagers. Disallusioned after a failed romance, teenage Jill rescues an ill-treated pedigee-less horse and realises that a pedigree is not as important as she had once thought, either in horses or people.
.
Collectors Info:
Some of these are reasonably easy to find, sometimes even being seen in the UK. However Bright Wampum and Red Embers are pretty rare even in America.

Books About the Author:

THE DEVIL MADE THE SMALL TOWN
BY Dorothy Lyons
(KIILKERRIN PB 1983)
SUMMARY: Autobiography

Collectors Info:
Although a paperback it is extremely hard to find and very expensive!