“The dog has got more fun out of Man than Man has got out of the dog, for the clearly demonstrable reason that Man is the more laughable of the two animals,” writes James Thurber in the introduction to this classic collection honoring the dogs, real and imaginary, that populated his life and work. These two dozen stories and essays and six sequences of drawings portray the unpredictable, often inexplicable relationships between pets and their humans.

In “Josephine Has Her Day,” the first story Thurber ever published, a bull terrier doesn’t quite live up to a couple’s expectations. But when they give her away, they quickly regret their decision and resort to extreme measures to get her back. “The Dog That Bit People” is the uproarious portrait of Muggs the Airedale, a dog that caused Thurber “more trouble than all the other fifty-four or -five put together,” yet unexpectedly found a staunch ally in Thurber’s mother. Several pieces chronicle the misadventures of the Scottish terrier Jeannie, another troublemaker, who delights in wandering off and inviting herself to the homes, parties, and picnics of other families. In “Blaze in the Sky” an English mastiff receives preferential treatment on a military plane during World War II—inciting a scandal that plunges the Roosevelt administration into crisis mode. Among the selections available only in this collection are essays defending the reputations of poodles and bloodhounds, two breeds Thurber believed were largely misunderstood and underappreciated.

This Library of America special publication also includes helpful notes and photographs of five of Thurber’s cherished canine companions.

James Thurber (1894–1961) created some thirty volumes of humor, fiction, children’s books, cartoons, and essays in just about as many years. A founding staff member of The New Yorker, Thurber wrote and illustrated such best-selling books as The Thurber Carnival and My Life and Hard Times, enduring stories like “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and “The Catbird Seat,” and memorable drawing sequences including “The War Between Men and Women” and The Last Flower. The best of his work is collected in James Thurber: Writings Drawings, volume #90 in the Library of America series.