The editor of The Company of Dogs compiles twenty stories expressing the unique relationship between humans and felines from such favorite contemporary authors as Roald Dahl, Bobbie Ann Mason, Alice Adams, and Phillip Lopate. 45,000 first printing.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Cats don't have an easy time in this collection, the companion volume to Rosen's The Company of Dogs. Serving as furry metaphors for loss and isolation, felines here are usually strays or unwanted to begin with, and often end up dead or missing. Responding as a reader rather than a protective cat lover isn't always easy; fortunately, consistently masterful storytelling assuages most of the guilt of enjoyment. Both Penelope Lively and Wright Morris contribute sly revenge tales with unfortunate cats as the vendetta vehicles. In Susan Fromberg Schaeffer's riveting "Chicago and the Cat," a scientist discovers the emptiness in his own heart only after he allows a cat named Figaro to slowly die before his eyes. The late Roald Dahl is up to his customary wickedness in "Edward the Conqueror," a tale of a dotty woman, a cat who may or may not be Liszt reincarnated, and an ominously burning bonfire. But the collection is not entirely without lighter themes: Phillip Lopate writes of a man who is gradually seduced by the imperious destructiveness of a marmalade; Merrill Joan Gerber has a flea-ridden kitten unexpectedly reinvigorate the sex life of a suburban couple. Photos, by Tony Mendoza, not seen by PW .
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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More About the Author
Greetings and thanks for welcoming me into your home. Since I write books for both young readers and adults, I've cooked up two long-winded paragraphs.
Kids first: So, I'm the author of some four dozen books for children of all ages. The fall of 2011 brings four new titles: MY DOG! A Kid's Guide to Keeping a Happy & Healthy Dog (the idea go-to dog guide for families); a pop-up book with Robert Sabuda, Chanukah Lights, which just received a starred review in Publisher's Weekly: "A stunning achievement"; The Hound Dog's Haiku and Other Poems for Dog Lovers, illustrated with Mary Azarian's woodcuts; and Night of the Pumpkinheads, illustrated entirely with extraordinary jack-o'-lanterns.
Other favorites are The Cuckoo's Haiku and Other Poems for Birders; Our Farm: Four Seasons with Five Kids on One Family's Farm (which I both wrote and illustrated with some 400 photographs); A Drive in the Country; Don't Shoot!; A School for Pompey Walker, and Elijah's Angel. (And, yes, there's the Britiish Michael--no "J."--Rosen whose many books are often confused with mine.) For over 35 years, ever since working as a counselor, water-safety instructor, and art teacher at local community centers, I've been engaged with young children, their parents and teachers. As a visiting author, in-service speaker, and workshop leader, I frequently travel to schools and conferences around the nation, sharing stories, poems, creativity, and humor.
Several of my books here show my work as editor/anthologist or illustrator. It has been my privilege to have enlisted hundreds of other authors and artists to create 15 philanthropic books that aid in the fight to end childhood hunger through Share Our Strength's national efforts, or that offer care to less fortunate companion animals through The Company of Animals Fund, a granting program I administered for a dozen years.
Now, for adults. I can start by saying I'm a poet. I went to Columbia from 1979-1981, and received my MFA there. Poems are now collected in three volumes, which are all featured here at Amazon. Moving home to Ohio, I worked as an illustrator (while in NYC, I began selling spot illustrations to The New Yorker and Gourmet magazines); one of my first real clients was The Thurber House, the soon-to-be-restored home of Columbus's native son, James Thurber. For almost twenty years, I helped to restore the home, develop the programs there, and edit much of Thurber's uncollected work. (Those volumes are also featured here.) It was there, I began to edit short story anthologies, commission great writers to contribute to books about dogs, horses, and even VW Beetles. That's also where I started Mirth of a Nation, a three-volume humor biennial that constitutes almost 2,000 pages of the best contemporary humor.
Most recently, I've been working in humorous nonfiction. No Dribbling the Squid features profiles of 70-some of the world's most wayward competitions. (You can see the Web site and Facebook pages, as well.) And, most recently, there's Any Body's Guess: Quirky Quizzes About What Makes You Tick.
Otherwise, my Website has a good deal about my life on the 100-acre farm I share in Central Ohio. Thanks again for reading along with me.
www.fidosopher.com
for lots more about MY DOG!, including recipes, training tips, cool projects, games, and so forth: www.workman.com/mydog
Kids first: So, I'm the author of some four dozen books for children of all ages. The fall of 2011 brings four new titles: MY DOG! A Kid's Guide to Keeping a Happy & Healthy Dog (the idea go-to dog guide for families); a pop-up book with Robert Sabuda, Chanukah Lights, which just received a starred review in Publisher's Weekly: "A stunning achievement"; The Hound Dog's Haiku and Other Poems for Dog Lovers, illustrated with Mary Azarian's woodcuts; and Night of the Pumpkinheads, illustrated entirely with extraordinary jack-o'-lanterns.
Other favorites are The Cuckoo's Haiku and Other Poems for Birders; Our Farm: Four Seasons with Five Kids on One Family's Farm (which I both wrote and illustrated with some 400 photographs); A Drive in the Country; Don't Shoot!; A School for Pompey Walker, and Elijah's Angel. (And, yes, there's the Britiish Michael--no "J."--Rosen whose many books are often confused with mine.) For over 35 years, ever since working as a counselor, water-safety instructor, and art teacher at local community centers, I've been engaged with young children, their parents and teachers. As a visiting author, in-service speaker, and workshop leader, I frequently travel to schools and conferences around the nation, sharing stories, poems, creativity, and humor.
Several of my books here show my work as editor/anthologist or illustrator. It has been my privilege to have enlisted hundreds of other authors and artists to create 15 philanthropic books that aid in the fight to end childhood hunger through Share Our Strength's national efforts, or that offer care to less fortunate companion animals through The Company of Animals Fund, a granting program I administered for a dozen years.
Now, for adults. I can start by saying I'm a poet. I went to Columbia from 1979-1981, and received my MFA there. Poems are now collected in three volumes, which are all featured here at Amazon. Moving home to Ohio, I worked as an illustrator (while in NYC, I began selling spot illustrations to The New Yorker and Gourmet magazines); one of my first real clients was The Thurber House, the soon-to-be-restored home of Columbus's native son, James Thurber. For almost twenty years, I helped to restore the home, develop the programs there, and edit much of Thurber's uncollected work. (Those volumes are also featured here.) It was there, I began to edit short story anthologies, commission great writers to contribute to books about dogs, horses, and even VW Beetles. That's also where I started Mirth of a Nation, a three-volume humor biennial that constitutes almost 2,000 pages of the best contemporary humor.
Most recently, I've been working in humorous nonfiction. No Dribbling the Squid features profiles of 70-some of the world's most wayward competitions. (You can see the Web site and Facebook pages, as well.) And, most recently, there's Any Body's Guess: Quirky Quizzes About What Makes You Tick.
Otherwise, my Website has a good deal about my life on the 100-acre farm I share in Central Ohio. Thanks again for reading along with me.
www.fidosopher.com
for lots more about MY DOG!, including recipes, training tips, cool projects, games, and so forth: www.workman.com/mydog
Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Too many dead cats,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Company of Cats: 20 Contemporary Stories of Family Cats (Hardcover)
Some of the stories are fairly good. However, many are depressing, or worse. Do you really want to hear someone describe how his cat gets weaker and weaker and finally dies as he intentionally starves it to death? There are better collections of cat stories out there.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Do not buy this book,
By
This review is from: The Company of Cats: 20 Contemporary Stories of Family Cats (Hardcover)
If you are a cat lover, do not be fooled by the title of this book. One would assume that this book would contain heartwarming stories of cats and their owners. That is not the case. Most of the owners in these stories don't even care about their cats. In one particular story, a man starves his cat to death. In another, a man poisons his cat with toxic paint. You are even led to believe that another man throws his cat into a bonfire. I was appalled by this book. This book should be thrown in the bonfire!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Sick and Demented,
By A Customer
This review is from: Company of Cats, The (Hardcover)
This is NOT a book for cat lovers. As I read the forward by the editor Rosen, a clear disdain for cats came through. Thinking this was odd, but would not reflect the sentiment of the authors of the short stories, I continued reading. I read the first handful of stories and was forced to stop. Each and every story I read was worst than the last one....a woman who dates a man who is mean to her cats, a man who doesn't want or like cats gets one and then ignores it, a woman finds a kitten and returns it to owners she knows are abusive and neglectful, a man who starves his cat to death. After the one about the guy who starves his cat to death I had had enough of this book and debated stop reading it. But thinking a book marketed to cat lovers couldn't possibly continue on this vein, I read one more story...a man throws poisonous objects at his cat until the cat finally eats one and dies. At this point, only 1/3 of the way into this book, I stopped reading.Michael Rosen's disdain for cats, which came through in his forward in a weak voice, came through loud and clear by his choice of stories to include in this book...it's sick and demented.
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