Ralph Moody

Ralph Owen Moody (1898-1982) was an American author who wrote 17 novels and autobiographies largely about the American West, though a few are set in New England. He was born in East Rochester, New Hampshire in 1898 but moved to Colorado wit his family when he was eight in the hopes that a dry climate would improve his father Charles's tuberculosis. Moody detailed his experiences in Colorado in the first book of the Little Britches series, Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers. After his father died, eleven-year-old Moody assumed the duties of the "man of the house." 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. The Moody clan returned to the East Coast sometime after Charles's death. After a period as livestock business owner in rural Kansas, Moody married and moved to Kansas City. Ralph and Edna Moody had three children.