Ralph moody author biography

Ralph Moody

Ralph Owen Moody (December 16, – June 28, ) was an American writer who wrote 17 novels and autobiographies largely about the American West, though a few are set in New England. He was born in East Rochester, New Hampshire and moved to Littleton, Colorado in with his family when he was eight in the hopes that a dry climate would improve his father Charles's tuberculosis. Moody detailed his experiences in Colorado in the first book of the Little Britches series, Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers.

Historical books[]

• Kit Carson and the Wild Frontier ()
• Geronimo, Wolf of the Warpath ()
• Riders of the Pony Express ()
• Wells Fargo ()
• Silver and Lead: The Birth and Death of a Mining Town ()
• American Horses ()
• Come on Seabiscuit ()
• The Old Trails West ()
• Stagecoach West ()

Autobiographies[]

In historical order:

Play[]

Gallery[]

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External links[]

American author (–)

Ralph Owen Moody (December 16, – June 20, ) was an American writer who wrote 17 novels and autobiographies largely about the American West, though a few are set in New England. He was born in East hester, New Hampshire, and moved to Littleton, Colorado, in with his family when he was eight, in the hopes that a dry climate would improve his father Charles's tuberculosis. Moody detailed his experiences in Colorado in the first book of the Little Britches series, Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers.

Biography

After his father died, eleven-year-old Moody assumed the duties of the "man of the 7 house". He and his sister Grace combined ing enuity with very hard work in a variety of odd jobs, including starting a street baking business, to help their mother provide for their large family. The Moody clan returned to Boston some time after Charles's death, because Mary-Emma, Ralph's mother, was served a subpoena but did not want to appear in court against a man she believed to be innocent. Ralph, however, had difficulty readjusting. Following more than two times that he got his name in the local "bad boy book," most of which were false charges, he left the family home in Boston to live on his grandfather, Thomas Gould's farm in Lisbon Falls, Maine, which is covered in the book, The Fields of Home. Thomas Gould died in Ralph Moody's later books cover his subsequent travels through Arizona, New Mexico, Nebraska, and Kansas. He traveled west, intending to end up in Littleton, Colorado, before he succumbed to a diagnosed illness, diabetes. His books cover his experience during this time in the desert southwest and mid-western US, including stints as a bust sculptor, a horse rider doing "horse falls" for motion pictures, and a farm hand - t

Born

December 16,

Died

June 28,

Genre

Biographies & Memoirs

About a year ago my husband and I began reading a series of books by a man who belongs in the top rank of memoirists (and whose book titles come from the colorful periods in his life).

Although born in East Rochester, N.H., in , Ralph Moody’s formative childhood occurred in Colorado, where the family moved when he was 8 years old. There the boy learned to rope and ride, acquiring the nickname Little Britches from the local cowboys. Having failed at ranching, the Moodys settled in nearby Littleton, where Ralph’s father died after a horse/auto accident. As the year-old Man of the Family, Ralph took odd jobs and even worked one summer at a neighbor’s Home Ranch, proudly earning a man’s wages.

In , for complicated reasons, Ralph’s mother abruptly moved the family to her hometown near Boston. Starting over with almost nothing, Mary Emma & Company established a laundry business while Ralph worked a number of side hustles. All perfectly legitimate, but somehow he acquired the reputation of a troublemaker. To clear the air, he went to New Hampshire to work with his cranky old grandfather in The Fields of Home. (That was the only book we didn’t finish: My husband got tired of Grandfather’s constant yelling.)

When America entered the Great War, Ralph’s ill health sidelined his efforts to enlist. Instead he worked in a munitions plant, which didn’t improve his condition (later diagnosed as diabetes). The family doctor prescribed that he move West, get plenty of sunshine, eat lots of green leafy vegetables, and not do anything crazy. Ralph obeyed every rule except the last.

What we can take from Moody is the way he lived: with eyes wide open.

It wasn’t entirely his fault: The only job available after he arrived in Arizona was performing “horse falls” for the movies. The stake he earned from that brief venture began disappearing when he met Lonnie, an overgrown hyperactive kid who talked Ralph into buying a Model T they nicknamed