Best dog writing ever encountered

[terracore]

I was hesitant to click on this thread because our dogs' writing is horrible. It's just a bunch of paw prints with no discernable pattern or repetition!

But if you want to read some of the worst writing about dogs, it's in one of the best books I ever read. It's a biography about Antarctic explorer Douglas Mawson called "Mawson's Will: The Greatest Polar Survival Story Ever Written". It tells the story of Sir Douglas Mawson's incredible solo journey across Antarctica in 1912 after his companions and supplies were lost in a crevasse. The tent and food went down the crevasse with them, leaving him nothing to eat... or to feed his sled dogs, in the middle of nowhere Antarctica with the harshest weather in the world with no radio or other means to call for help.

The book sort of changed my life because it's all stuff that really happened. Like if something is stressing me out or seems insurmountable mentally I return to Mawson's story and how he survived 1000% worse when every card in the deck was stacked against him and nobody was coming to help. He should have died a dozen times but he survived the unimaginable because he refused to give up. But for no spoilers, I won't post here what happened to the dogs, but I bet you can figure it out.

[hiero2]

Originally Posted by terracore

. . . But for no spoilers, I won't post here what happened to the dogs, but I bet you can figure it out.

Apparently "what happened to the dogs" may have been, in that time, common practice for arctic expeditions, both poles. I recall getting rather bothered in an online discussion somewhere, people were giving kudos to Peary's (or somebody's) courage and bravery, while I was quite annoyed that no credit was given to the dogs. Without those dogs, the humans would not have been around to talk about it.

[Jellybean50]

Yes, love the book.

I can't read sad dog books any more so i've not read most of the other books mentioned.

I did really like "Because of Winn Dixie," which may be considered a children's book, i'm not sure!