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One Horse Farm
Written and illustrated by Dahlov Ipcar

$17.95, Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-934031-39-1


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Other books by Dahlov Ipcar:
Farmyard Alphabet
Wild Animal Alphabet
The Cat at Night
The Calico Jungle
Hardscrabble Harvest
My Wonderful Christmas Tree
The Little Fisherman
(written by Margaret Wise Brown)

 

LOOK INSIDE:
View a slide show of pages from
One Horse Farm.
ABOUT THE BOOK
A baby and a foal are born on the farm, on the very same day. Together Johnny and Big Betty grow up learning to work through all the farm's seasons, planting, plowing, mowing, cow herding, and ice cutting.

But Betty grows quickly and Johnny grows slowly. By the time Johnny is a big man, Betty is an old horse. When Johnny realizes it's time to replace Betty with a tractor, he must decided what to do with his beloved horse.

One Horse Farm, first published in 1950, tells the story of a boy and a horse who grow up together on a farm and watch the world change around them. It's a book that comes from the heart for legendary Maine artist Dahlov Ipcar, who has lived on a farm in Georgetown, Maine, for more than 70 years. "It was the life I lived," she says.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dahlov Ipcar was born in Vermont, raised in Greenwich Village, and summered in Maine after her parents (the famed sculptor William Zorach and artist Marguerite Zorach) bought a farm on Georgetown Island in 1923. Thirteen years later, eighteen-year-old Dahlov, an aspiring artist, married Adoph Ipcar. The young couple left New York City in 1937 to live on the Maine farm where they first met.

By the early 1940s, Ipcar had nearly given up thoughts of writing and illustrating books, but was contacted by a New York publisher to illustrate The Little Fisherman, the latest title by Margaret Wise Brown. The struggling young artist jumped at the chance, and this charming title helped launch a four decade run that saw her write and illustrate more than thirty children's books of her own.

Today, Ipcar's intricate, distinctive, and fanciful artwork is known worldwide, with pieces of her work in the collections of numerous renowned museums, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Meanwhile, Ipcar still lives and paints in the 1860s farmhouse that she shared with Adolph for nearly seventy years. She once said she didn't want celebrity or fame; she just "wanted to be recognized." In retrospect, a fairly modest statement for a Maine – and American – treasure.