Lad, A Dog facts for kids
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Original dust jacket
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| Author | Albert Payson Terhune |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Young adult fiction |
| Published | May 1919 (E. P. Dutton) |
| Pages | 349 pp (first edition) |
| OCLC | 234286 |
| Followed by | Further Adventures of Lad |
Lad: A Dog is a famous American novel from 1919, written by Albert Payson Terhune. It's a collection of twelve exciting short stories that were first printed in magazines. The book is all about the adventures of a real-life Rough Collie dog named Lad. Lad was born in 1902 and was a much-loved dog, especially by children, who were very sad when he passed away in 1918.
Contents
About Lad: A Dog
This book shares many stories about Lad's adventures. Through these tales, Albert Payson Terhune also shares his ideas about how to raise children and how to train dogs. He believed in getting dogs to obey without using force. He also wrote about what it means for a dog to be "well-bred" and what rights they should have.
Meet Lad, the Real Dog
Lad was a special Rough Collie dog owned by the author, Albert Payson Terhune. He was born in 1902. Lad wasn't a registered dog, and his family tree wasn't known. Many fans of the stories, especially children, were very sad when the real Lad died in 1918.
How the Book Was Made
Albert Payson Terhune started writing the stories about Lad in 1915. His editor at Red Book Magazine suggested he write them. The stories quickly became very popular.
Terhune had promised to give a book to a publisher called Doubleday-Page. So, he gathered all the short stories about Lad and put them together into a novel. Doubleday-Page didn't want to publish the book. But Terhune kept trying other publishers until E. P. Dutton decided to publish it.
Why People Loved It
At first, Lad: A Dog didn't sell very quickly. But soon, it became a huge bestseller! It was popular with both adults and young readers. In the 1960s and 1970s, Grosset and Dunlap started selling it as a young adult novel.
The book has sold over one million copies. It is Terhune's most successful book and made him very famous. Lad: A Dog has been reprinted more than 70 times by Dutton. Many other publishers have also released it since it first came out. It has even been translated into at least six other languages around the world.
What People Thought of the Book
When the book first came out, critics liked Terhune's writing style. They also enjoyed the stories. However, some dog breeders thought the dog characters were not very realistic.
Later on, some critics felt the book had become a bit old-fashioned. They also thought Terhune's writing wasn't always the best. But they agreed that the book still had a lasting appeal. It made readers wish they could have such a wonderful dog.
Terhune himself called the book "hack writing," meaning he thought it was just quick, easy writing. He didn't understand why it was so popular. Because of its success, he wrote two more novels about Lad. He also wrote one book about Lad's son, Wolf, and many other dog stories.
Lad on Screen and in New Books
Warner Brothers released a movie based on the book in June 1962. Also, a series of four children's picture books were published by Margo Lundell between 1997 and 1998. These picture books were based on three of the stories from the original novel.
Images for kids
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Terhune wrote his stories in the company of his Collies, including Lad, who is lying on the ground in this photo.
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An advertisement in Red Book Magazine (1918) for one of Terhune's short stories on Lad
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Lad's grave in Sunnybank
