Flicka's Friend: The Autobiography of Mary O'Hara

by Mary O'Hara

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399127275
• ISBN13: 9780399127274
• Release Date: January 1982
• Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group
• Length: 284 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The real Flicka

I read this book, the autobiography of Mary O'Hara because I have read her Wyoming trilogy ("My Friend Flicka," "Thunderhead," and "Green Grass of Wyoming") many, many times and was interested to see how closely her life resembled her writing. Some of the major differences: * The real-life Flicka died of her barbed-wire wounds, but the author always felt that if she had stayed with her filly (the 'Ken holding Flicka in the mountain stream' incident), she might have lived. * Mary O'Hara was married twice, and her second husband, Helge Sture-Vasa was probably the model for Nell's husband, Rob McLaughlin in the trilogy. Mary and Helge moved out of Hollywood where Mary had a profitable career reworking movie scripts, and spent many years in Wyoming, trying to make a success of their Remount ranch. However, unlike Rob who was a very straight-arrow character, Helge was a philanderer and a pathological liar. * Helge and Mary did not have any children together, but Mary had a son (Kent) and daughter (O'Hara, who died young of cancer) by her first husband. * The fictional Goose Bar ranch seemed to have been modeled very closely on the Remount Ranch. Helge started out with sheep as opposed to the fictional Rob, who tried to make a go of raising horses. Rob finally brought in sheep and pulled the ranch out of bankruptcy. Helge pretty much lived off of Mary's writing income and failed to make a living on sheep, horses, or dude ranching. * Mary finally divorced Helge and moved back East to be close to her family. She started this autobiography at age 90, then died at age 95, not too long after finishing a musical called, "The Catch Colt." She was an accomplished musician as well as writer, and had composed several popular works for the piano. I read "Flicka's Friend" in one sitting. It was like finally learning the truth about a friend I thought I had known since childhood. The real Mary O'Hara was a stronger, more complex character than the fictional Nell--I don't know whether Nell could have survived two divorces and the death of a much-loved child by cancer. I was profoundly saddened by Helge's many betrayals. If only he had turned out to be an upright man like his fictional counterpart, Rob---Oh well, Mary was always attracted by alpha males, including a shady cult leader named George Edwin Burnell. Thank goodness he died before he could really get his hooks into Mary. If you are a fan of Mary O'Hara's fiction, "Flicka's Friend" will deepen your understanding of a very fine author and the source for much of her inspiration.