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Catch Colt
The daughter of a Wyoming rancher meets with parental opposition when she falls in love with a young out-of-work cowboy who has always been a loner and a drifter
Paperback
First published January 1, 1964
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About the author
Mary O'Hara
131 books120 followersMary O’Hara Alsop, an American author, screenwriter, and composer, was born July 10, 1885, in Cape May, N.J., to Reese Fell Alsop and Mary Lee (Spring). She grew up in Brooklyn Heights, N.Y., where her father was an Episcopal clergyman.
In 1905, Ms. O'hara married Kent Kane Parrot, whom she later divorced. Her second marriage to Helge Sture-Vasa from Sweden in 1922 also ended in divorce in 1947. Ms. O’Hara had two children from her first marriage, Mary O’Hara who died of skin cancer during her teens, and Kent Kane, Jr.
Ms. O’Hara moved to California after her first marriage where she became a screenwriter during the silent film era through the advent of talking movies.
In 1930, during her second marriage, Ms O’Hara moved to a ranch in Wyoming where she wrote her three novels, the classic “My Friend Flicka,” and the sequels “Thunderhead” and “Green Grass of Wyoming,” about the McLaughlin family and the younger son and his horse, Flicka.
In addition to writing, Ms O’Hara was a successful composer and published numerous songs for the piano. She also wrote a musical play called "The Catch Colt" which she later turned into a novel, first published in 1979 in Great Britain. The rights to performing this as a play or a musical can still be obtained through Dramatists Play Services, New York.
While she claimed her first love was musical composition, she continued writing fiction and nonfiction.
A year after her divorce from her second husband in 1947, Ms O’Hara returned to the east coast where she lived in Connecticut until 1968. She died Oct. 14, 1980, in Chevy Chase, Md. Her literary works are maintained by Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
(sources: Current Biography, 1944; Contemporary Authors, 1981)
In 1905, Ms. O'hara married Kent Kane Parrot, whom she later divorced. Her second marriage to Helge Sture-Vasa from Sweden in 1922 also ended in divorce in 1947. Ms. O’Hara had two children from her first marriage, Mary O’Hara who died of skin cancer during her teens, and Kent Kane, Jr.
Ms. O’Hara moved to California after her first marriage where she became a screenwriter during the silent film era through the advent of talking movies.
In 1930, during her second marriage, Ms O’Hara moved to a ranch in Wyoming where she wrote her three novels, the classic “My Friend Flicka,” and the sequels “Thunderhead” and “Green Grass of Wyoming,” about the McLaughlin family and the younger son and his horse, Flicka.
In addition to writing, Ms O’Hara was a successful composer and published numerous songs for the piano. She also wrote a musical play called "The Catch Colt" which she later turned into a novel, first published in 1979 in Great Britain. The rights to performing this as a play or a musical can still be obtained through Dramatists Play Services, New York.
While she claimed her first love was musical composition, she continued writing fiction and nonfiction.
A year after her divorce from her second husband in 1947, Ms O’Hara returned to the east coast where she lived in Connecticut until 1968. She died Oct. 14, 1980, in Chevy Chase, Md. Her literary works are maintained by Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
(sources: Current Biography, 1944; Contemporary Authors, 1981)
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 30, 2017
Mary O'Hara Alsop, a writer of Wyoming ranch stories including My Friend Flicka.
O'Hara was also an accomplished pianist and composer. She composed a folk musical, called Catch Colt which means a child born out of wedlock.
This Novella of a folk story is of young love, between Letty and Joey (the Catch Colt, he does not have any family, states he is a loner, and figures his age to be 20). Letty's father does not want Joey to be with his daughter. He wants her with a well educated young man that he has picked out for her, the foreman Hank (who turns out to be jealous and vengeful of Joey).
Letty has fallen for Joey at first sight, literally! Letty believes in her heart they are meant to be together and it has always been that way, but her parents do not think he is fit for Letty. It turns out at the end that Joey is Windy's grandson but is discovered first by the family dog and by the family Bible. Letty and Joey.
One of my favorite tales of Letty is while she is growing up she used to hide in the hayloft between bales of hay to read her books. I love this part about her.
The book is written for young tweens and coming of age readers. Very charming story set on a cattle ranch, a beautifully written tale with wonderful descriptions of the Wyoming countryside as vast, silent, empty and a secret of a hidden world of incredible beauty.
O'Hara was also an accomplished pianist and composer. She composed a folk musical, called Catch Colt which means a child born out of wedlock.
This Novella of a folk story is of young love, between Letty and Joey (the Catch Colt, he does not have any family, states he is a loner, and figures his age to be 20). Letty's father does not want Joey to be with his daughter. He wants her with a well educated young man that he has picked out for her, the foreman Hank (who turns out to be jealous and vengeful of Joey).
Letty has fallen for Joey at first sight, literally! Letty believes in her heart they are meant to be together and it has always been that way, but her parents do not think he is fit for Letty. It turns out at the end that Joey is Windy's grandson but is discovered first by the family dog and by the family Bible. Letty and Joey.
One of my favorite tales of Letty is while she is growing up she used to hide in the hayloft between bales of hay to read her books. I love this part about her.
The book is written for young tweens and coming of age readers. Very charming story set on a cattle ranch, a beautifully written tale with wonderful descriptions of the Wyoming countryside as vast, silent, empty and a secret of a hidden world of incredible beauty.
January 22, 2016
3.5 stars. If you can bear with a textbook case of love-at-first-sight, this is a rather sweet story. It was novelized from the author's stage musical, which probably accounts for the slightly sketchy and bare-bones feeling of the text—I would have liked seeing it a bit longer so a lot of the characters could have been better developed. What really shines through is O'Hara's love for Wyoming, captured in the brief but vivid descriptions of the landscape and what it means to the people who made their homes and lives there.
March 12, 2016
Novelisation of a musical. A simple sweet plot. Short book. Sweet romance for young girls, to simple for adult reading.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews