The fatherless Moody family moved from Colorado to Medford, Massachusetts, in 1912, when Ralph was entering his teens. "I tried as hard as I could to be a city boy, but I didn't have very good luck," he says at the beginning of The Fields of Home. "Just little things that would have been all right in Colorado were always getting me in trouble." So he is sent to his grandfather's farm in Maine, where he finds a new set of adventures.

Western writer Ralph Moody (1898–1982) grew up in Carson territory in southeastern Colorado. He is the author of seventeen books, including Come on Seabiscuit! and his series Little Britches, all available in Bison Books editions.

"Ralph Moody’s books should be read aloud in every family circle in America"—Sterling North

"[Moody] has a splendid talent for bringing the ashes of the past into life."—Chicago Sunday Tribune

"One of the happiest pieces of Americana produced in our times . . . Rich in good talk, good food, good living, and best of all, good people. It is the kind of book you keep hoping will never end."—Chicago Tribune

"As bright and clean as clear water bubbling over rocks in a trout stream."—New York Times

"A lively story . . . warm with humor; bright with incident and personality."—San Francisco Chronicle