Fans of Thornton W. Burgess’ books know that Granny Fox features prominently with her grandson Reddy in The Adventures of Reddy Fox (1913), and of course she stars in Granny Fox (1920).
But in chapter 32 of Jerry Muskrat at Home (1926), Reddy is with Mrs. Reddy (Swiftfoot), and Granny Fox does not make an appearance. Millions of Burgess readers have wondered when they met, and what happened to Granny.
Thornton W. Burgess wrote his syndicated newspaper column for children, “Bedtime Stories”, for 48 years, from 1912 to 1960, totaling over 15,000 daily episodes. Most of his books were drawn from those newspaper stories. A daily newspaper episode would usually become a single chapter.
But only about 10% of those newspaper stories ever made it into a book. Burgess also published about 900 stories in magazines, of which only 76 were reprinted in books.
The transition from Granny Fox to Mrs. Reddy happened in newspapers in a 15-episode narrative published February 15-March 3, 1917 (Sundays excluded). That narrative has never been reprinted again in any form until now, in this book.
How did Reddy meet Swiftfoot? Read and find out!
Also included is a 7-episode narrative about Reddy and Swiftfoot starting a family.
Harrison Cady illustrated each of these 22 episodes. All 22 original illustrations are included here.
Thornton W. Burgess was one of the most popular children’s authors of the 1910s and 1920s. He was also one of the most knowledgeable naturalists of his day, respected by the professional naturalists of the time. He infused his children’s stories with his deep knowledge of wild animals and their behavior. With rare exceptions, you can be sure that the thousands of fascinating facts about wild animals and their behavior described in his stories are absolutely true (the very few exceptions are virtually all due to advances in scientific knowledge since he wrote). And more than any other children’s author before or since, he gives his young readers a genuine sense of what it’s like to live as the wild animals in his stories.
Burgess was also instrumental in getting America’s first hunting laws passed, in no small part through his children’s stories. His young readers learned through his stories of how harsh life really was for wild animals. Then they grew up, ran for office, and voted in hunting laws.
Finally, though Burgess wrote for children, he was as widely read and loved by adults–even those with no children at home to read his stories to–as he was by children.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.