John Taintor Foote (1881-1950)

American author, playwright and screenwriter. Born in Colorado. Although he trained as an artist and began a career in commercial art, he soon abandoned this for writing. He decided instead to start writing sporting stories, in particular those about racing. Many of his racing stories were published in the popular magazine The Saturday Evening Post, and were an immediate success. His most popular stories featured a colourful rogue called 'Blister Jones.' These Blister Jones stories were collected into a book to form his first novel. He went on to write more novels, although they largely featured fishing and dogs.

Foote moved to Hollywood in the 1930s and wrote a number of film scripts, including the 1949 film The Story of Seabiscuit. The famous Hitchcock film Notorious was also based on one of his stories.

Horse & Pony Books:

BLISTER JONES
(BOBBS-MERRILL [USA] 1913)
ILLUSTRATED BY JAY HAMBIDGE
Reprinted in hardback and paperback.
In print at the moment in the USA by a 'print on demand' publisher
SUMMARY: Collection of horse racing stories featuring the colourful track character 'Blister Jones.'
Read book on-line for free

THE LOOK OF EAGLES
(APPLETON & CO [USA] 1916)
(1st UK edition J A ALLEN 1969)
Reprinted in hardback
Published in the UK by J A Allen with illustrations by Peter Biegel
SUMMARY: An old man has the chance to train a colt to win races.

HOOFBEATS: THE GREAT HORSE STORIES OF JOHN TAINTOR FOOTE
(APPLETON & CO [USA] 1950)
Reprinted in hardback as part of the Grosset Famous Horse Stories series.
SUMMARY: Collection of 13 horse stories including: Shame On You/ Blister/ A Fowl Disaster/ Two Ringers/ Class/ Salvation/ Tres Jolie/ Ole Man Sanford/ The Look of Eagles/ A Tip In Time/ Spirit Dope/ The Big Train/ Old Pastures. Many feature his popular character 'Blister Jones' and are replicated from the book of the same title. It is something of a 'best of' book.

Collector's Info:
All of the books can be found in some shape or form in the USA, with Blister Jones being available new via 'print on demand' at Amazon, and also free to all interested parties as an e-book. The only one commonly seen in the UK is The Look of Eagles, which had a British printing, although perhaps commonly is an over-statement, as it is still a reasonably rare title here.