Spike of Swift River and
Silver Chief: Dog of the North were both written by Jack O'Brien, and published by Collins for their
Famous Dog Stories series. The former was published in the copy below in 1958 and has a cover very similar to
"Silver Chief" and
"Tan" (more on this later). But Christine Sheppard and I don't think it is by Raymond Sheppard. It has similarities to his work but there is no signature and the dog's shadow does not match the dog!
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| Cover by unknown artist |
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| List of Collins Seagull Library |
The frontispiece, with a group of men watching a fist fight – with a dog in the background, is interestingly Sheppard's signed work where the rest of the book is illustrated but by Kurt Wiese!
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| Dan's coiled right struck again, and McQuade's head jerked back |
According to an article by David Ouse,
"O’Brien continued his life of adventure in the 1930s, [after travelling to Antarctica]
using his experience with sled dogs to take several prospecting trips to northern Canada". He wrote in total four books about the next dog which first appeared in 1933.
Silver Chief: Dog of the North, in the same series has no illustrations apart from the cover and the frontispiece which are both drawn by Sheppard!
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| Silver Chief cover by Raymond Sheppard |
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| With the speed of a flashing shadow the dog leaped |
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"
Jack O’Brien was living in an apartment in New York City when he died of cancer at the age of forty-one on December 6, 1938. Two more novels were discovered with his papers and published, with some reworking, after his death: Silver Chief’s Revenge and Royal Red" - Ouse, Forgotten Duluthian Jack O’Brien, 2013
The third title I own in the "Collins Famous Dog Stories" series is
Tan: a wild dog by Thomas C. Hinkle.
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| Tan: a wild dog Cover |
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| Tan hit the grey wolf like a ton of bricks |
Hinkle has quite a fan-following in those readers who like
pony and horse stories. He lived from 1876-1949 and you can find a biography and photo on
Onanga, Kansas Rootsweb site.
I had an enjoyable few hours browsing images on the Internet from this series and have listed them below, but none appear to be drawn by Sheppard. And interestingly I think the only one I would wonder about would be
Spike!
List of Collins Famous Dog Stories
- Kenneth Gilbert: Wolf Dog Valley
- Thomas Hinkle: Vic, a Dog of the Prairies
- Thomas Hinkle: Tan, a Wild Dog
- Thomas Hinkle: Gray, the Story of a Brave Dog
- Jim Kjelgaard: Lion Hound
- Jim Kjelgaard: Outlaw Red
- Jim Kjelgaard: Stormy: a Boy and his Dog in a Fight for Justice
- Jim Kjelgaard: Wild Trek
- Jack O’Brien: Silver Chief, Dog of the North
- Jim Kjelgaard: Irish Red
- Jack O’Brien: Spike of the Swift River
- Lathrop West: Jet, Sled Dog of the North
For more information on Collins Seagull Library take a look
here
