Customer Reviews

The Master of Sunnybank: A Biography of Albert Payson Terhune

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
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This is by far the best biography of Albert Payson Terhune, famous writer of dog stories. It does much to capture the essence of the man, Sunnybank and his stories about collies. It is well indexed and contains only the most minor mistakes. It belongs in the library of anyone interested in the literature about dogs. Long out of print, it is now available in this softcover edition.

I discovered Albert Payson Terhune's books back in high school and fell in love with all his collies. I scoured all the old second hand book stores in San Francisco to find more of his stories and even though I've now passed the half century mark I still enjoy his tales.

While they might not be "classic" literature, they have a wonderful ability to pull you into the tale immediately.

I always wondered what Mr. Terhune was like in life - and this biography does a great job in filling in the details.

Mr. Terhune imbued his books with a genuine love of his subject - and of course, his love for his beautiful home, Sunnybank.

Mr. Litvag has produced a very readable bio about a larger-than-life writer - and has done it with style and flair - and love.
Highly recommended!

A beautiful bio of Albert Payson Terhune. A very balanced and well written book about a man who was very complex. He is portrayed as the man who was full of passionate beliefs, who deeply loved his wife, was loyal to his friends, was much more soft-hearted than many ppl knew. Litvag also shows how he dearly loved his beautiful Sunnybank Collies and also the many wild animals that lived there. His passion for the garden with plants from all over the world is explored also. But, Litvag does not sugar coat this great author. With all his good points he also shows that Terhune was also like all other humans with his shortcomings. The book explores his distant relationship with his daughter, his sometimes impatience with pushy ppl, his temper outbursts at annoyances of life and petty ppl and his use of colorful language at times. While I have always admired Terhune and his books, I came away with more respect and admiration for Albert Payson Terhune for this book brought not only the author and the owner of those great collies to life for me, but it also brought to life the real Albert Payson Terhune. A wonderful person who like all of us had his great moments and his rough moments. It was very interesting reading about the private side of Terhune and getting a complete look at him, both good and bad. A must have for anyone who loves Albert Terhune's books.

Those who grew up with Lad and the other Sunnybank collies or new readers who have just discovered them should find this an enlightening biography of Albert Payson Terhune. He still has his fans, and the stories are still delightful. This is a "must have" for dog lovers.

Wonderful book! I loved all the info the author researched and added. I also liked his conjectures at the end of the book as to why Bert Terhune only had a daughter by his first wife, and why he treated his daughter the way she was treated. The book shows that a) Bert loved his dogs and his dogs loved him. b) the stories APT wrote had alot of truth in them, as evidenced by the way Wolf died. Not everything was true, of course.

I don't care what any so-called literary critic thinks, Bert painted pictures with words and I loved his dogs stories. The author of this book wrote extremely well, very clear, and added photos which I was grateful for.

As a collie lover and owner, and one who grew up with the memorable books by APT, I couldn't wait to read this biography. It shows the flaws as well as the good points of the man, how he acquired Sunnybank, how he became the writer we know.

I was horribly disappointed in this book, as I expected photos of all the collies and The Place as well as of APT and the Mistress. What very few photos there were, were horrible reproductions that could not have been worse if I had done them at home on an 80 year old copier. If you want to see what the place and the dogs looked like, skip spending the money on this book. From a purely biographical point of view, the book is OK.

The title says it. Most biographers of Terhune consider this work negative, if not sensationalist in it's attitude towards the author and his life. Worthwhile in it's detail -- topics not often covered -- but, disjointed by the writer's point of view.