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 (Birmingham Newman University), Louise McDonald (Birmingham Newman University), Andrew Radford (University of Glasgow)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1956

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Biography (literary)

Resources

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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 contemporary reviewers and readers who did not know how to categorize a work that

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735 words

Citation: Kale, Verna. "My Dog Tulip". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 December 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3339, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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