Jeannette Walls - Half Broke Horses

Although those books substantiated certain events, such as the murder of Robert Casey and his children’s feud over the herd, they contradicted others. Shinkle noted that while researching his book, he came across conflicting versions of events and was frequently unable to get to the ultimate truth. In telling my grandmother’s story, I never aspired to that sort of historical accuracy. I saw the book more in the vein of an oral history, a retelling of stories handed down by my family through the years, and undertaken with the storyteller’s traditional liberties.

I wrote the story in the first person because I wanted to capture Lily’s distinctive voice, which I clearly recall. At the time I didn’t think of the book as fiction. Lily Casey Smith was a very real woman, and to say that I created her or the events of her life is giving me more credit than I’m due. However, since I don’t have the words from Lily herself, and since I have also drawn on my imagination to fill in details that are hazy or missing-and I’ve changed a few names to protect people’s privacy- the only honest thing to do is call the book a novel.

JEANNETTE WALLSwas born in Phoenix, Arizona, and grew up in the Southwest and in Welch, West Virginia. She graduated from Barnard College and was a journalist in New York City for twenty years. Her award-winning memoir, The Glass Castle , is an international bestseller and has been translated into twenty-three languages. She is married to writer John Taylor and lives in Virginia.