J. R. Ackerley, My Dog Tulip

Verna Kale (Penn State University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.08: English Writing and Culture of the early Twentieth Century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Peter Childs (Newman University), Louise McDonald (Newman University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1956

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Biography (literary)

Resources

My Dog Tulip is J. R. Ackerley’s (1896-1967) memoir of the purebred Alsatian (German Shepherd) bitch that he rescued from a neglectful owner. Ackerley, a British memoirist, novelist and playwright and editor of the BBC magazine The Listener, treats the willful and skittish dog — prone to biting strangers and relieving herself on sidewalks and carpets — with great tenderness in this encomium. Yet the memoir is not only a portrait of a beloved pet; it is also an account of the difficulties of violating social convention in conservative postwar British society — a topic painfully familiar to the openly homosexual author.

Published in 1956 in the UK and in 1965 in America, the book puzzled and shocked …

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735 words

Citation: Kale, Verna. "My Dog Tulip". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 December 2007 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3339, accessed 24 November 2024.]

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