It contains gay stories and sad ones, philosophical ones and shamelessly sentimental ones. There are stories about mastiffs and bull terriers, pointers and poodles, Airedales and just plain mutts. For people who feel pretty seriously about dogs there are pieces such as "The Character of Dogs," by Robert Louis Stevenson and "Dandy, The Story of a Dog," by W. H. Hudson. For those who want to get something of a behind-the-scenes line on the way dogs think, there are stories such as "My Talks with Dean Spanley," by Lord Dunsany, "On Being a Public Character," by Don Marquis, and "Memoirs of a Yellow Dog," by O. Henry.
Those interested in canine heroes will find "The Bar Sinister," by Richard Harding Davis, "Lassie Come-Home," by Eric Knight, and "Garm-a Hostage," by Rudyard Kipling. Those particularly concerned with the relationships of small boys and dogs will do well to read "Blue Milk," by Booth Tarkington and "The Odyssey of Runyon Jones," by Norman Cornwin. And those who will remember to keep a handkerchief handy while reading may turn to "A Dark Brown Dog," by Stephen Crane and "A Pair of Lovers," by Elsie Singmaster Lewars.
In his introduction to The Fireside Book of Dog Stories, James Thurber writes: "The dog has got more fun out of man than man has got out of the dog for the clearly demonstrable reason that man is the more laughable of the two animals." This book is an attempt to remedy this injustice. The reader need bring only one thing to it—an attachment to dogs, by leashes or other ties. For it contains every conceivable kind of dog story, from the kind that cause spontaneous laughter to the kind that cause sniffling.
