{"id":100572,"date":"2024-02-28T09:31:01","date_gmt":"2024-02-28T14:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/?p=100572"},"modified":"2024-03-01T07:39:35","modified_gmt":"2024-03-01T12:39:35","slug":"the-hired-man-on-horseback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/02\/28\/the-hired-man-on-horseback\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hired Man on Horseback"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Peter Gordon, Historian —<\/p>\n

A great love story and literary dynasty that almost didn\u2019t materialize was chronicled by May Davison Rhodes, of Apalachin, N.Y., in her story of her life and collaboration with Eugene Manlove Rhodes – her \u201cLoco Cowboy.\u201d<\/p>\n

It took Gene Rhodes, a young \u201cWestern Poet,\u201d three months to reply to a note from May Davison Purple of Apalachin, a recently widowed woman with two young children, and who was suffering from diphtheria. May tells her story in The \u201cHired Man on Horseback\u201d, just reissued with over 100 photos, and available at The Riverow Bookshop in Owego, and from Amazon.com.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>May\u2019s great-grandson, Gerald \u201cJerry\u201d Rhodes, whose Owego family roots date back to 1820, writes the following in his forward to the book: My favorite among her (May\u2019s) insights, \u201cIt wasn\u2019t so comfortable at times, being married to a genius, more like snuggling up to a volcano that unexpectedly poured hot ashes, stones and lava on your bewildered head, and when this had ceased, you could still hear rumblings and groanings that retched his soul. Then there were long peaceful times when you forget all that. And in any state, he was the most fascinating man I ever met.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything but boring, and yes, interesting and surprising! The partnership they forged led to a prolific output of stories and poems. The reader will find in this love story: Majestic scenery in the mountains and plains of the Southwest. Hard work, and an accurate picture and complete vindication of the American cowboy.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

Gene Rhodes\u2019 baseball obsession drew the Owego Times cartoonists\u2019 attention in the Aug. 18, 1912 edition. Provided.<\/p><\/div>\n

That true cowboy was a hero to be defended at all costs! In the 1920\u2019s and 1930\u2019s this team made Gene Rhodes into a leading literary figure. Renowned writers, publishers, and scholars visited Gene and May in New Mexico, California, and in Apalachin, New York. Gene and May\u2019s collaboration produced novels, several of which were turned into movies, short stories published in major magazines (over 60 in The Saturday Evening Post), essays, and poems \u2013 elegant and loving whenever Gene wrote to May. Late in their life together May brought up his first story, The Hour and the Man.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

Eugene Manlove Rhodes, 1869 \u2013 1934. Provided.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cGene (revealed) reflectively, \u2018If I hadn\u2019t met you, I should probably never have written any stories. I was about to engage in a life of outlawry. It looked very attractive,\u2019 he mused.\u201d<\/p>\n

The collaboration suffered most from Gene\u2019s obsession with baseball, as May revealed, \u201cFour things were uppermost in Gene\u2019s mind in those days: (1) baseball; (2) baseball; (3) baseball; (4) his literary work. It was soon an accepted fact that the story-writing would be done only from the time when baseball stopped in the fall until it started in the spring.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

ay Davidson Purple Rhodes, 1871 \u2013 1957. Provided.<\/p><\/div>\n

May\u2019s obituary in the March 20, 1957 Alamogordo (New Mexico) Daily News describes her as \u201c\u2013 the beloved \u2018Saint May\u2019 who inspired, cajoled and threatened her husband, the late Eugene Manlove Rhodes, into writing the books and stories that have become a folk epic of the Old West.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Peter Gordon, Historian — A great love story and literary dynasty that almost didn\u2019t materialize was chronicled by May Davison Rhodes, of Apalachin, N.Y.,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":100575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Hired Man on Horseback - Owego Pennysaver Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/02\/28\/the-hired-man-on-horseback\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Hired Man on Horseback - Owego Pennysaver Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Peter Gordon, Historian — A great love story and literary dynasty that almost didn\u2019t materialize was chronicled by May Davison Rhodes, of Apalachin, N.Y.,...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/02\/28\/the-hired-man-on-horseback\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Owego Pennysaver Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/The-Owego-Pennysaver-49179420591\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-28T14:31:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-01T12:39:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2024\/02\/Book3.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"506\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"psadvert\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"psadvert\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/02\/28\/the-hired-man-on-horseback\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/02\/28\/the-hired-man-on-horseback\/\",\"name\":\"The Hired Man on Horseback - Owego Pennysaver Press\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/02\/28\/the-hired-man-on-horseback\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/02\/28\/the-hired-man-on-horseback\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2024\/02\/Book3.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-28T14:31:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-01T12:39:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/#\/schema\/person\/e03684194434956dfb61f5ffcbc19492\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/02\/28\/the-hired-man-on-horseback\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/02\/28\/the-hired-man-on-horseback\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/02\/28\/the-hired-man-on-horseback\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2024\/02\/Book3.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2024\/02\/Book3.jpg\",\"width\":506,\"height\":300,\"caption\":\"Pictured is the Apalachin ball team, circa 1925. 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