{"id":2899,"date":"2013-05-22T10:57:01","date_gmt":"2013-05-22T17:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theblackstallion.com\/web\/?p=2899"},"modified":"2013-05-22T10:57:01","modified_gmt":"2013-05-22T17:57:01","slug":"walter-farley-newspaper-article","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblackstallion.com\/web\/walter-farley-newspaper-article\/","title":{"rendered":"Walter Farley Newspaper Article"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s a nice article that is in the Herald Tribune newspaper today<\/a> about Dad and his literary landmark at the Venice Public Library.
\nHope you get to visit sometime!<\/p>\n

\n

NEW: Walter Farley’s legacy lives on at Venice library<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/h1>\n
By Dale White<\/a><\/div>\n
Published: Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 10:52 a.m.<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/p>\n
Dale White<\/div>\n
The Walter Farley Literary Landmark <\/a>in the children’s wing of the Venice Area Public Library is a showcase of memorabilia about the famous author of “The Black Stallion.” <\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

 <\/p>\n

The popularity of most children’s book authors may come and go with each generation.<\/p>\n

Just a few years ago, though, when Random House released a hardback reproduction of the original 1941 edition of “The Black Stallion” by the late Walter Farley, it found no shortage of eager fans.<\/p>\n

That hardcover edition continues to sell, with new and returning readers posting enthusiastic reviews on bookselling websites such as Amazon.com.<\/p>\n

Today an exhibit about Farley, who lived in Venice for decades, continues to be a drawing card at the Venice Public Library \u2014 which he and his wife Rosemary helped get built more than 47 years ago.<\/p>\n

County library system director Sarabeth Kalajian worked at the Venice library and remembers Farley well.<\/p>\n

“He was a frequent visitor to the library and would come and hang out with the kids,” Kalajian said. “He was definitely fun-loving, always inquisitive, always doing research… Young readers today still really love his stories. They are adventures that take you to far-off places. Some have an element of mystery. The relationship of a youngster and a horse is an appealing theme.”<\/p>\n

“The books are wonderful,” Nancy Pike, a former head of the Venice library who helped create the Farley exhibit there. “The message they give of ‘follow your dream’ is a universal message that never grows old.”<\/p>\n

Who was Walter Farley?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Growing up in Syracuse, N.Y., and New York City, Farley \u2014 the son of an assistant hotel manager \u2014 never owned a horse but had opportunities to visit the stables of his uncle, a professional horse trainer.<\/p>\n

While still attending high school in Brooklyn, he started work on what would become his first and most popular novel. Millions became enchanted by “The Black Stallion,” the story of a boy and a horse that survive a shipwreck.<\/p>\n

In 1941, Random House published the book while Farley was still an undergraduate at Columbia University.<\/p>\n

After service in World War II, Farley pursued a successful career as a children’s book author \u2014 writing sequels to “The Black Stallion” and many other books.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the war, he and his wife started splitting time between their beach home in Venice and their farm in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

He died at Sarasota Memorial Hospital in October 1989 after suffering a heart attack, just a few months after the Venice Public Library unveiled an exhibit about him and shortly before the publication of his final book, “The Young Black Stallion.”<\/p>\n

Rosemary Farley, 94, died March 6 at her Venice home.<\/p>\n

The Hollywood versions<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Farley rejected offers from Disney and others to make a movie of “The Black Stallion” because the producers wanted to alter the story.<\/p>\n

He eventually agreed to let Francis Ford Coppola produce the popular 1979 film of the same title, which critic Pauline Kael wrote “may be the greatest children’s movie ever made.”<\/p>\n

The TV show inspired by the book and movie, “The Adventures of the Black Stallion,” lasted 78 episodes and still sells on DVD.<\/p>\n

In his own words<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Farley, in a 1980 interview with the Herald-Tribune: “When I look back on it, writing has been the perfect career for me. As I’ve said before, I’m a professional observer and I like to put my observations on paper. I suppose if I hadn’t become a writer I would have found a career related to my interest in horses.”<\/p>\n

A ‘Literary Landmark’<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

When the Venice Public Library unveiled an exhibit about Farley in its children’s wing in 1989, it called the glass-enclosed showcase the “Walter Farley Literary Landmark.”<\/p>\n

Today, the exhibit still contains Farley’s typewriter, saddle and many personal letters and photos.<\/p>\n

His son, Tim Farley, maintains an active website about his father’s legacy, TheBlackStallion.com<\/a>, and, in his memory, oversees the Horse Tales Literacy Project<\/a>, which encourages children to read.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2013 HeraldTribune.com \u2014 All rights reserved. Restricted use only.<\/p>\n

Thanks Dale! – Enjoy the Ride!<\/p>\n

TF<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s a nice article that is in the Herald Tribune newspaper today about Dad and his literary landmark at the Venice Public Library. Hope you get to visit sometime! NEW: Walter Farley’s legacy lives on at Venice library By Dale White Published: Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 10:52 a.m. Dale White The Walter Farley Literary …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2914,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[380],"tags":[185,216,16,50],"class_list":["post-2899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-htlp","tag-article","tag-horse-tales-2","tag-news-2","tag-walter-farley"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblackstallion.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblackstallion.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblackstallion.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblackstallion.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblackstallion.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2899"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/theblackstallion.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2916,"href":"https:\/\/theblackstallion.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2899\/revisions\/2916"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblackstallion.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblackstallion.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblackstallion.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblackstallion.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}