Stories about dogs as "man's best friend" date back to antiquity. That owners cared for their dogs in this life is apparent by veterinary papyri uncovered from ancient Egypt. Greeks kept them as pets and hunting animals. Dogs have played a role in the religion, myths, tales, and legends of many cultures, so it's no wonder that stories are constantly being written about them. As publishing books specifically for children exploded in the first half of the 20th century, many authors wrote popular stories about dogs. These include Jack London, Albert Payson Terhune, Thomas Hinkle, Jim Kjelgaard, James Oliver Curwood, Fred Gipson, and many others.
In the early 1950s through the late 1960s, Grosset and Dunlap drew from their own backlist and worked with other publishers to reprint some of the most popular of these titles and created the Famous Dog Stories series (the same happened with horse stories). At first, these came in lightweight cloth books with dust jackets, and gradually they shifted to pictorial hardcovers. While the publisher sold direct to libraries and consumers, a selection of them were also sold through Sears catalogs. These weren't all the dog books they offered: books by Albert Payson Terhune and Thomas Hinkle (and probably others) were published as separate series.
We've done our best to collect the list of those included in the series and offer that information here. Please note that most used copies we get do not include the dust jackets, and will often look like the cloth cover above.
Related Books:
- James Oliver Curwood: The Danger Trail
- James Oliver Curwood: Isobel
- Hubert Evans: Derry of Totem Creek
- Ouida: A Dog of Flanders
- Marshall Saunders: Beautiful Joe’s Paradise
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