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. In addition to the Little Britches series, Moody wrote a number of books detailing the development of the American West. At age 50, he enrolled in a writing class, which eventually led to the publication of Father and I Were Ranchers. Moody's formal education was limited, but he had a lifelong interest in learning and self-education. 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. 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. The Moody clan returned to the East Coast some time after Charles's death, but Moody had difficulty readjusting. 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. Moody detailed his experiences in Colorado in the first book of the Little Britches series, Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers.Īfter his father died, eleven-year-old Moody assumed the duties of the 'man of the house'. 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's tuberculosis. Ralph Owen Moody (Decem– June 28, 1982) was an American author who wrote 17 novels and autobiographies largely about the American West (though a few are set in New England).

Little britches ralph moody