
Susan Orlean, a New Yorker writer, best known for The Orchid Thief, a non-fiction account of John LaRoche and his band of Seminoles that poached orchards in south Florida, has now written a biography of Rin-Tin-Tin and his many descendants. One reviewer (“Rin Tin Tin: The Life and Legend,” Christian Science Monitor, Sept. 27, 2011) wrote: the “unfurling narrative of Susan Orlean’s Rin Tin Tin, about the canine movie star, unleashes a cultural history of German shepherds and the changing role of dogs from farm workers to war heroes to pets; the evolution of the motion picture industry from silents to talkies to television; and an exploration of why some cultural icons continue to beguile. ” Place a hold on this unique bio.
While Orlean’s wide-ranging curiosity is a delight, I also wondered what other canines – famous or otherwise – have merited their own bios. Here are a few:
First Friends: American Presidents and Their Best Friends by Roy Rowan
Millie’s Book by Barbara Bush
Shaggy Muses: The Dogs Who Inspired Virginia Woolf, Emily Dickinson, Edith Wharton, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Emily Bronte by Maureen B. Adams
Laika by Nick Abadzis (Young Adult)