Southern Dogs & Their People

By P. S. Davis and P.S. Davis

There's nothing more cherished by Southerners than their dogs. Dogs, and their Southern keepers, know when it's time to eat and when it's time to be quiet. Both know when to move slow and when to bare teeth. In Southern literature, dogs have taken prominent roles as muses and characters, confessors and conspirators. Southerners love their dogs almost as much as their mammas, and Southern Dogs and Their People aims to celebrate that love. Photographer P.S. Davis has been taking photographs of dogs around her home of Greenville, Alabama, for many years. Her photographs chronicle the lives of dogs and their owners, from the poodles of a rich widow to the mutt of a homeless veteran. As a photographer, Davis is known for her tenderness and steely-eyed wit, her sense of the perfect and the absurd. Editor Roberta Gamble, Davis's friend and neighbor, has brought together a wide-ranging collection of quotations from great Southern writers, including William Faulkner, Lee Smith, Harry Cress, Bailey White, Larry Brown, Clyde Edgerton, Eudora Welty, Zora Neale Hurston, James Dickey, Anne Tyler, James Tate, Flannery O'Connor, Bobbie Ann Mason, and many others. This fond tribute by two dog-loving Southerners is the perfect gift for every dog lover.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1565122682
• ISBN13: 9781565122680
• Release Date: June 2000
• Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
• Length: 130 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.8" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

Everyone will love this...

Excellent book!! This is high praise considering I am a cat person. The photographs and the verses are wonderful and fit well together. If you don't at least like this book, you do not have a warm spot in your entire body.

Great gift

I love this book, and have given it to several people as a gift. Everyone has enjoyed it and always has their own stories to tell about their favorite dogs. Now if Priscilla and Bobbie would only write a book about favorite cats....!

Delightful, and witty book that stirs the heart

The photography in this book is truly outstanding in capturing the "spirit of the south". The quotations of southern authors merely underscore the feelings evoked by the poignant photos. This book is perfect for canine lovers in every region of the U.S; but especially for those of us whose family members include the 4 legged ones.

Yankee dogs love it too!

It seems that P.S. Davis can talk with the animals! Davis possesses the uncanny ability to convey not only the thoughts and feelings shared between dogs and "their people", but of the dogs themselves. Paired perfectly with quotes sometimes hillarious and often poignant from great Southern writers, this project seems to be a labour of love with readers reaping the benefits. I was transported from my tiny space in the East Village to a truly special place in the Deep South. What a great Dawg day afternoon!

A great book for any dog lover!

If you've ever owned a dog - you know what amazing and devoted animals they are. This book features man's best friend in various and candid settings around the South - all captured in beautiful black and white photographs and weaved effortlessly with clever excerpts from great Southern writers. This book truely evokes that special and unique friendship between man and dog - there really is magic in this book.