Beautiful Joe

by Marshall Saunders

Overview

Beautiful Joe was a dog from the town of Meaford, Ontario, whose story inspired the bestselling 1893 novel Beautiful Joe, which contributed to worldwide awareness of animal cruelty. The real Beautiful Joe was an Airedale-type dog. He was medium-sized, brown, and described as likely being part bull terrier and part fox terrier. Saunders was so touched by Joe's story that she wrote a novel-length, fictionalized, autobiographical version of it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781627559270
Publisher:	SMK Books
Publication date:	06/10/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	206
File size:	606 KB

About the Author

Margaret Marshall Saunders (1861-1947) was a Canadian author. Saunders was born in the village of Milton, Nova Scotia, though she spent most of her childhood in Berwick, Nova Scotia where her father was a Baptist minister. Saunders is most famous for her novel Beautiful Joe. It tells the true story of dog that has had a difficult puppyhood with many obstacles including a cruel owner. It is told from the dog's point of view. When the book was published in 1893, both the book and its subject received worldwide attention. It was the first Canadian book to sell over a million copies, and by the late 1930s had sold over seven million copies worldwide. In 1934, Saunders was made a Commander of the British Empire (C.B.E.), at the time her country's highest civilian honor. Together with fellow Canadian author, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Saunders co-founded the Maritime branch of the Canadian Women's Press Club. Following the success of Beautiful Joe, Saunders wrote more than twenty other stories, a number of which provided social commentary on such things as the abolition of child labor, slum clearance, and the improvement of playground facilities. Saunders died in 1947 in Toronto, Ontario where she had lived for a number of years.