Farley died of cancer in October 1989, shortly before the publication of The Young Black Stallion, the twenty-first book in the series, and during production of the television series The Adventures of the Black Stallion.Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 13:08:00 Boxid IA40225102 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier In 1989 Farley was honored by his hometown library in Venice, Florida, which established the Walter Farley Literary Landmark in its children's wing. After the War, the land was sold and eventually high rise apartments were built.įarley and his wife, Rosemary, had four children-Pam, Alice, Steven and Tim-whom they raised on a farm in Pennsylvania and in a beach house in Florida. This area up to the end of World War II still supported agriculture, including cows, horses and truck farming. The neighborhood is near the site of the 1939 World's Fair and the Belmont Park racetrack, an important venue for horse racing. Most of the novel takes place in New York City, albeit one of its less developed areas: Flushing, in the borough of Queens. He finished it and had it published in 1941 while still an undergraduate at Columbia College of Columbia University, where he received a B.A. Farley began to write The Black Stallion while he was a student at Brooklyn's Erasmus Hall High School and Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania. His uncle was a professional horseman and taught him various methods of horse training and about the advantages or disadvantages of each method. His first and most famous work was The Black Stallion (1941), the success of which led to many sequels over decades the series has been continued since his death by his son Steven.įarley was the son of Walter Patrick Farley and Isabelle 'Belle' L.

Walter Farley (born Walter Lorimer Farley, 26 June 1915 – 16 October 1989) was an American author, primarily of horse stories for children.

The Island Stallion by Walter Farley