This popular story was written in February of 1926 as a favor to Cynthia Asquith for a collection of ghost stories she was preparing. It's believed that the model for Paul was her autistic son, John, combined with Lawrence's own troubled past.
             A remarkable film adaptation was produced in 1949, written and directed by Anthony Pelissier and starring young John Howard Davies (of Oliver Twist fame) and Valerie Hobson. It's black and white, making good use of light and shadow in a "film noir" style that also calls to mind the best of the Twilight Zone. The toy-horse in the movie would give anyone shivers with its wild eyes, flared nostrils, and hideous toothy smile like a donkey braying and laughing. The film adds on a final scene where the rocking-horse is taken out of the house and burned. I found that a fitting end and a possible bowing to the story's creator, Lawrence the Phoenix. And like the returning mythical bird, the memory of Paul's pitiful death will continue to haunt the characters (and us, as well).
             In "The Rocking-Horse Winner," who won and who lost? Who was lucky or unlucky? What does it mean to be "lucky"? What does it mean to be "successful"? How does money corrupt those terms? There's a lot going on in this story of a boy competing for his mother's love and approval--some see the story as sexual or Oedipal, others see it in a supernatural light. Either way it's an ironic and materialistic tragedy. Lawrence once wrote in a letter (to A.D. McLeod dated Oct. 6, 1912):
             Tragedy ought really to be a great kick at misery.
             I see Paul as kicking his wooden horse into a galloping frenzy to escape the mad whispering of the house: "There must be more money! There must be more money!" And it happens to be a "modern" toy with manufactured metal springs, a product of the industrial age given at the most materialistic of holidays--Christmas. Beyond that, the symbol o
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