Hector the Dog. New York, McLaughlin Bros. 1904
Before Rin Tin Tin, Lassie and The Littlest Hobo there was Hector the Saint Bernard and his friends out there saving lives. Click through if you’d like to see more of the art and as always you can click the photos for full size.
via: The Internet Archive
Frank Pope Humphrey. An American Dog Abroad, and the Foreign Dogs He Met. Boston, Alpha Publishing, 1896.
via: George Smathers Library at the University of Florida Digital Collections (where you can read the book)
Marshall Saunders. Beautiful Joe. Illustrated by J. Nicholson. London, Jerrolds Publishers, 1907.
Beautiful Joe tells his own story and the book is filled with the most charming illustrations.
via: The Internet Archive
Told by Boots, Edited by Rudyard Kipling. Thy Servant a Dog. London, McMillan and Company, 1930. photo via: Abe Books
Told by Boots, Edited by Rudyard Kipling. Thy Servant a Dog. London, McMillan and Company, 1930. (Dust Jacket photo via: Maxinjo@pinterest)
The book is available to read at The Internet Archive
Marie Louise Marsh. Vic, The Autobiography of a Fox Terrier. Chicago, F.J. Schulte & Company, 1892.
Cover Photo via: Books and Art
The book is available to read at The Internet Archive
Jack found out that last week was Cat Week and he’s pissed. He reminded me that we don’t even have a cat anymore and tersely noted that I should have made it dog week. He also said that I got this gig because of him and that I should be more grateful.
Ahem… Sorry Bubba. Allow me to present to you DOG WEEK. Let’s start with a party to celebrate.
John Karst. The Dog’s Grand Dinner Party. New York, McLoughlin Bros., Inc., 1869.
via: Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature where you can read the whole delightful book.
Honor C. Appleton. Me and my Pussies. Illustrations by the author. Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd., 1927.
And so ends Cat Week here at The Art of Book Design.
I couldn’t find a copy of this one for you to read, but the David and Joyce Milne Public Library will let you look at several of the illustrations. They’re completely charming.
Cover Photo via: Stella and Rose’s Books
Hartwell James. The Cat and The Mouse: A Book of Persian Fairy Tales. Illustrated by John R. Neill. Philadelphia, Henry Altemus Company, 1906.
I was a cat person long before I was a dog person and it’s still cat week (which I didn’t announce) so this seems like a good fairy tale choice. The book is interesting because it contains artwork from 2 different sources. The frontispiece and title story The Cat and The Mouse are illustrated by an unnamed traditional Persian artist and the remainder of the book is illustrated by John R. Neill, who is famously known for illustrating the stories of Oz.
Geraldine Ross. Scat the Cat. Illustrations by Kurt Ross. McGraw-Hill, (1958)
Cover Photo via: Amazon.com
Sorry, but I couldn’t find a digital copy for you to read.
Natsume Soseki. I am a Cat. (1906) First English translation published in 1909. Translated by K. Ando and revised by K. Natsume. Tokyo, Hatori Shorten, 1906-1909.
This classic book, written by one of Japan’s most celebrated novelists, is a satire of Japanese society during the Meiji period (1868 – 1912) when western customs were first being incorporated into the country. It’s written from the perspective of a supercilious and eloquent housecat who humorously comments on the people and events that fill his life.
I couldn’t find a copy of the book for you to read, but it’s been reissued many times (and in many languages) and is available at most major booksellers. If you’d like to read a few quotes before deciding to buy, the site Cocosse-Journal is the place to go. I’ll share just this one quote from the book:
“Thus, as I review the list of my friends and acquaintances, most of them emerge as stained withmaniac stigmata of one sort or another. I begin to feel considerably reassured. The truth maysimply be that human society is no more than a massing of lunatics.”– from I am a Cat via Cocosse-Journal
Cover photo via: Old Timey Cats
Louis Wain. The Louis Wain Kitten Book. London, Anthony Treherne & Co. Ltd., 1903.
Photo via Biblio
The book is available to read at Children’s Books Online
The School for Cats. Written and illustrated by Esther Averill. Harper and Row, 1947.
Ruthven Todd. Space Cat. Illustrated by Paul Galdone. Charles Scribners Sons, 1952. Photo from Amazon.com
Space cat is a series of 4 books written in the 1950’s by Scottish novelist Ruthven Todd about Flyball the cat and his adventures in outer space. The books are filled with charming illustrations by Paul Galdone who also designed the set of 4 covers that have made the books highly collectible and hard to find. The Book isn’t in the public domain so I can’t send you to read them, but in 2018 the set was re-issued and is available for purchase at a reasonable price. Here’s the link to Amazon, but the books can be found at most major book stores. Click through if you’d like to see the other 3 book covers – they are fun!