One of the most beloved stories in the English language, this collector-quality Summit Classic edition of "Beautiful Joe" is printed on heavyweight bright white paper with a fully laminated cover featuring an original full color design. With a generous 6"x9" page size, page headers and an original author's biography exemplify the attention to detail given this volume.
Originally published as a novel in 1894, "Beautiful Joe" is based on the true story of a dog who lived in Meaford in southern Ontario. The first Canadian book to sell 1,000,000 copies, the novel was written in 1893 by Margaret Marshall Saunders and was the winning entry submitted to a literary contest sponsored by the American Humane Education Society. Saunders first heard the story of the dog, who had actually been abused and then rescued as depicted in the book, from her sister-in-law, Louise Moore. Louise's father, Walter Moore, had rescued the dog in 1890. Today the town of Meaford is home to a park and statue honoring the real Beautiful Joe, and a private heritage society was created in 1994 to preserve the Moore home and establish a museum.
Written as an autobiography from the dog's point of view, the book includes a reference in the first page to "Black Beauty, " which had also used that device, as "a little book that she my mistress] says is the story of a horse's life." Joe then explains that he has undertaken the writing of his life's story in the belief that it will please his mistress.
The fictionalized story, which the author relocates to a small town in Maine, recounts numerous adventures of Joe and the other animals and people in and around the "Morris" household and the little barn and barnyard that serves as a playground for children and a home for a variety of animals.
Above all, "Beautiful Joe" is a call for an end to cruelty to animals, a message which it delivers effectively in the course of a story enjoyed and loved by generations of readers young and old.