The Great Adventures of Jack, Jock and Funny

The first book I ever read by Eleanor Youmans was The Great Adventures of Jack, Jock and Funny. It was the second work that Youmans paired up on with animal portrait artist Will Rannells (the others being Waif and Timmy).

For a sixth grade English assignment, I created a diorama of one of the barnyard scenes, replete with Fisher Price rooster perched atop a molded plastic fence, and a miniature ceramic Collie, Scottie, and kitten. A classmate stole the Collie, but I still have the other pieces.

Stumbled across this wonderful post about the blogger's fond childhood memories of reading Jack, Jock and Funny, over at LiteraryZoo. Jack, Jock and Funny is also included in a list of stories about dogs complied by a Math professor at Texas Tech, as well as in A Treasury of Scottie Dog Collectibles: Identification and Values, Volume III, by Candance Sten Davis and Patricia I. Baugh, as one of "just a small sampling of books with Scottie dogs as main characters, supporting characters, or cover models" (187).

According to a 21 Sept. 1938 notice in the New York newspaper the Syracuse Herald, one of the title characters, Funny, "died suddenly just a few days before publication of a book he helped to inspire," at the age of 18. Funny was part Poodle and Skye terrier, and belonged to Charles L. Hirsh, of Columbus, Ohio. Hirsh also owned Jack, the white collie. The Scottish terrier, Jock, belonged to Professor George Frederick Arps, former dean of the graduate school at The Ohio State University. Jack, Jock and Funny is dedicated to Hirsh.

Images: (top) from The Washington Post 6 Nov. 1938: B8, (bottom) Original dust jacket from the first edition published in 1938