Horse of a Different Color is the story not only of Mr. Moody's experiences as a Kansas livestock dealer, but of the people who had the courage and fortitude to wrest a livelihood from that land of killing droughts, searing heat, and violet storms. Just after World War I, and following a summer with a rag-tag harvesting crew and a season as a grain hauler in western Kansas, Ralph Moody decided to devote his time, small saving, and considerable enthusiasm to the livestock business - a fascinating, often grueling, but more often rewarding occupation. With the backing of Bones Kennedy, the stern but sympathetic bank manager of Cedar Bluffs, Ralph started out trading and shipping mortgaged cattle and hogs. he expanded into livestock feeding, teaming up with Bob Wilson, whose flair for judging cattle was surpassed only by his talent for losing money. A March blizzard, followed by a June flood, nearly wiped them out and a threat of bankruptcy hung in the air. But the twenty-one-year-old Moody took heart from the sage advice and friendship of George Miner, a poker-faced veteran of the cattle business. Ellie Simons, the ebullient telephone operator and local newscaster, buoyed his spirits with her insistent helpfulness. A year later, Moody was back on his feet, as George Miner described it, "with heaps of kettles boiling at one time." What George did not notice was that one kettle on the back range was, in time, to boil over.
Author
Ralph Moody was an American author who wrote 17 novels and autobiographies about the American West. He was born in East Rochester, New Hampshire, in 1898 but moved to Colorado with his family when he was eight in the hopes that a dry climate would improve his father Charles' tuberculosis. Moody detailed his experiences in Colorado in the first book of the Little Britches series, Father and I Were Ranchers. After his father died, eleven-year-old Moody assumed the duties of the "man of the house." He and his sister Grace combined ingenuity with hard work in a variety of odd jobs to help their mother provide for their large family. The Moody clan returned to the East Coast some time after Charles' death, but Moody had difficulty readjusting. Following more than one ill-timed run-in with local law enforcement, he left the family home near Boston to live on his grandfather's farm in Maine. His later Little Britches books cover his time in Maine and subsequent travels through Arizona, New Mexico, Nebraska, and Kansas—including stints as a bust sculptor and a horse rider doing "horse falls" for motion pictures—as he worked his way back toward Colorado while continuing to support his family financially. Moody's formal education was limited, but he had a lifelong interest in learning and self-education. At age 50, he enrolled in a writing class, which eventually led to the publication of Father and I Were Ranchers. In addition to the Little Britches series, Moody wrote a number of books detailing the development of the American West. His books have been described as crude in the language of the times but are highly praised by Moody's readership and have been in continuous publication since 1950. After a period as livestock business owner in rural Kansas, Moody sent to Massachusetts for his former sweetheart, Edna. They married and moved to Kansas City. They had three children.—Source
