One of my labors has finally come to fruition. I spent last summer illustrating All My Dogs: A Life by Bill Henderson, and the book has finally come out this summer! Here’s what David R. Godine, the publisher, says about it:
“It may be true that a dog is a man's best friend, but if you are a serious dog owner, you are probably a serial dog owner, having embraced not one but a succession of canine companions, each of them memorable in their own particular way, and each marking a particular epoch in your own life. . . . In this intimate, moving, and revealing memoir, Bill Henderson, the beloved founder of the Pushcart Press, divides up the stages of his life into canine epochs. There was (and there always is) the first dog, the worst dog, the ones that died untimely deaths, the one who saved a marriage. . . . This is a book to love even if you don't love dogs. (http://www.godine.com/)
And here are a few more words of praise for our book:
“Like most great memoirs, All My Dogs contains the diversions readers need to slow their reading pace and savor the richness of the book’s content: triggers for daydreams and contemplation. As Henderson chronicles his life by recounting the lives of the 13 dogs he has owned, he stirs his readers’ memories of their own lives.” (The Ellsworth American, August 4, 2011).
“I cried at my desk at work, in the staff lunchroom, on the subway (twice), and had the sense to finish it in the privacy of my own home. And if that sounds like the book is a downer, rest assured it’s not. This is a lovely little volume, gentle in tone and a bit artless, telling the story of a life through the dogs who attended it. Bill Henderson, the founder of Pushcart Press and its better-known progeny, the annual Pushcart Prize, hasn’t written his account as an instructional, or a confessional, or even a celebration. Rather, it’s a meditation on the grace notes both dogs and people bring to a life—a hybrid “mutt memoir,” as he calls it.” (http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/likefire/pocket-review-all-my-dogs-a-life-by-bill-henderson
by Lisa Peet on August 16, 2011)
Lisa Peet even mentions me in her review: “The accompanying line drawings by Leslie Moore, appealing portraits of each dog recreated from photos and Henderson’s desriptions, add a nice touch. Lulu really does have the sweetest eyes.”
Finally, my neighbor, Rachel Snow, an active octogenarian, said she sat down to look at the pictures in the book and read the whole darned thing straight through! It kept her from getting all sorts of chores done. Happily so, I hope. “He’s my kind of writer!” she said.
I have copies of the book for sale for $20 + $4 (S & H). They’re signed by Bill Henderson, and I’ll be happy to sign and inscribe copies as well. Please contact me if you’d like to buy one. You won’t be disappointed!
