Letters from Country Life: Adolphe Pons, Man O' War, and the Founding of Maryland's Oldest Thoroughbred Farm
Josh Pons, a third-generation horseman and owner of Country Life Farm, depicts a century of life inside the horse business, written from inside the fences of Maryland's oldest Thoroughbred farm.
In 2016, in the basement of his farmhouse, Josh Pons discovered thousands of letters from his grandfather's life in the Thoroughbred horse business. The son of a French cook who came to New York City in 1894, Adolphe Pons got his start working in the Fifth Avenue mansion of Gilded Age banker August Belmont II. Adolphe became his personal secretary, and later played a major role in Belmont's breeding and sale of the most famous horse in history: Man o' War. During the Great Depression, Adolphe left New York and bought a hundred-acre horse farm in Maryland, naming it Country Life after the station stop on the Long Island Railroad nearest his Garden City home.
In serial form, Josh Pons expands on the column he wrote for the leading horse publication The BloodHorse, inviting readers to once more step into the attic garret alongside him as he recovers long-lost voices speaking out of letters, telegrams, and photos. Upon the attic stage appear Gilded Age tycoons from whom the author's grandfather bought and sold horses against the backdrop of World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II. As Josh draws from the farmhouse's rich archive, he chronicles his grandfather's life and times and shares his own candid reflections. The result is a fascinating and fresh look at the Golden Age of Horse Racing and how the past influences our present.
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Josh Pons won two Eclipse Awards for his journalism in BloodHorse magazine, presented for best stories of the year in the sport of Thoroughbred racing. He is the author of three books published by Eclipse Press: Country Life Diary: Three Years in the Life of a Maryland Horse Farm, which sold 10,000 copies, Merryland: Two Years in the Life of a Thoroughbred Training Farm, and Letters from Country Life: Adolphe Pons, Man o' War, and the Founding of Maryland's Oldest Thoroughbred Farm.
Pons joined BloodHorse upon graduation from the University of Virginia, where he majored in English. After three years as a journalist, he entered the University of Kentucky Law School, graduating in 1982, then returned to his family's Country Life Farm.
Professionally, he served as president of the Maryland Horse Breeders Association for six years and is currently president of the foundation responsible for the Maryland Horse Library and Education Center. He and his wife, Ellen, live in Fallston, Maryland, on Country Life, the oldest Thoroughbred farm in the state, together with an extended Pons family of all ages.
Josh Pons has a great affection for history and an exceptional gift to bring the past to life through his exquisite storytelling. What do you get when you combine captivating horse tales of Maryland's oldest Thoroughbred farm with behind-the-scenes stories about racing legends such as August Belmont II and Man o' War? With Pons at the helm illuminating the legacy established by his grandfather, Adolphe Pons, you get pure magic. From the Gilded Age to World War II, Letters from County Life is an essential read for anyone who enjoys Thoroughbred racing, farm life, horses, and fascinating American history.
A confluence of fortunate elements made this book possible, and enchanting. Individuals of a century past meticulously preserved records of fascinating events and experiences. These were discovered years later by a respectful and knowledgeable family heir, Josh Pons. The treasury thus was entrusted to a horseman and writer with the soul of a poet. All readers are the beneficiaries.
Immersed in years-old letters, telegrams, and clippings in the material-packed garret at his family farm, Maryland's Country Life, Josh Pons meets those who peopled his grandfather's world. Then, in Letters from Country Life, he introduces them to us. The details are luxuriant, extraordinary--wormseed oil, carbon copies, blister paint, the Teapot Dome scandal, Packards. He writes about a letter ensuring that jockey Earl Sande received the appropriate tip. Pons' essays about his finds originally appeared in The Blood-Horse, and reading them in one volume is a special pleasure.
Letters from Country Life is largely about the past, and Pons evokes the dreamy quality of archival research, when those you're reading about seem to live around you, weaving their own connections and laying out paths to explore. But he also writes beautifully about the Thoroughbred breeding life he inhabits today, when the motto is "adapt or perish."
Pons uses the timelessness of lives spent with horses to meld past and present, animating both with depth and style. As he writes, it's always been hard to pose a yearling for pictures. This is a book for anyone who loves horses, history, and a good family story. You are in excellent hands.
Man O' War as a foal in a field, halterless. Carry Back, improbably bred from a stud named Saggy and a mare named Joppy. The great Cigar, foaled in a Maryland pasture. In this book, horses like these and the people who devoted their lives to them, as chronicled in the letters of Adolphe Pons, become characters in a vibrant narrative crafted by his grandson. Josh Pons transforms the day-to-day happenings of what it's like to run a horse farm into a story transcending time and place, connecting all those who love and admire the Thoroughbred racehorse.
Imagine having the good fortune to discover a treasure trove of historic documents in your attic, and the talent to turn them into an extraordinary journey into a bygone era. Letters from Country Life is both a vivid personal tale and a recollection of a world that used to be; it is history, journalism, and literature, in one very readable volume. Please believe me about this: You're going to love this book.
From his "garret" of Country Life's old farmhouse, Josh Pons delves into a trove of private letters belonging to bygone days and beautifully renders a poetic splendor honoring reminiscences of famed horses and famed men. Skillfully weaving historical threads of eras wrought from wars and financial depression with that of the enduring bond of horse racing and breeding, Pons offers a stark and poignant look at our past and a focused lens on what can be. Letters from Country Life is a literary treasure and a tour de force of a love letter.
Letters from Country Life is a rare treasure, a book that blows the dust from history and makes it breathe with renewed life. Deftly interweaving poetic images with the prose of forgotten letters and records, Josh Pons immerses the reader in his journey through the heritage of spirit, land, and horses left behind by a grandfather he never knew in life. Leading through past and present, twining around magnificent Thoroughbreds and memorable people, it is a journey well worth the sharing.
Over three decades, I've had the good fortune to hear Josh Pons' stories of breeding and training racehorses, with frequent references to his grandfather, Adolphe. I never met that genial horseman, but now I feel I have, thanks to his grandson's loving curation of his letters.
