First Dogs: American Presidents and Their Best Friends by Roy Rowan, Brooke Janis

From the Publisher

"If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog," Harry Truman once said. Perhaps that's why, for much of our Republic's history, there have been two top dogs at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue...one with two legs, one with four. First Dogs, by distinguished journalist Roy Rowan and researcher Brooke Janis, tells the whole doggone story, from the days before there was a White House to Barack Obama's newly adopted presidential pup, Bo.

Here's a lighthearted romp through American history, packed with drawings and paintings from early America, plus photographs, starting with Abraham Lincoln's Fido. Not only did these four-footed goodwill ambassadors humanize their distinguished masters, they offered them a little unconditional love in a loveless town.

First Dogs gives dog lovers and history lovers a new angle on presidential history and is more fun than you can shake a stick (or rubber bone) at.

Publishers Weekly

Rowan, a Time-Life correspondent, and Janis, a photo researcher, take a promising premiseshowing the history of the presidency in terms of presidents' dogsbut come up empty. While they diligently excavate facts and pictures related to presidents and their pets, they string together their research without benefit of analysis or imagination. At times their presentation is dunderheaded ("On April 14, 1865, with the Civil War won, Lincoln was shot by actor John Wilkes Booth; he died the next day"); more often coyness substitutes for wit ("The circumstances surrounding [the death of then governor Bill Clinton's dog] are unclear, and so far the Whitewater Special Counsel has not investigated them"). The authors miss obvious opportunities for exploring the political ramifications of dog ownership. For example, they recycle the canard about FDR spending $15,000 of taxpayer revenues to fetch his famous dog, Fala, from the Aleutian Islands; and put a fig leaf over the embarrassment Ronald Reagan suffered on account of his unruly Bouvier with the statement, ridiculous to anyone who has ever trained a dog, that "size, not behavior, was the problem." Readers with an interest in dogs or history deserve better. Photos. First serial to Smithsonian magazine. (June)

Kirkus Reviews

George Washington had one. Ulysses S. Grant had one. Warren G. Harding had one. And, of course, Richard Nixon had one—not just the sadly exploited Checkers, but the more regal King Timahoe, the Irish settter of his presidential days. Time-Life correspondent Rowan and photo researcher Janis have assembled a barrage of trivia and photographs of presidents and their pooches: James Garfield named his dog Veto in order to keep Congress in line; Lincoln's Fido—the first presidential dog to be officially photographed—was intimidated by the hullaballoo of Washington and was sent back home to Springfield to be looked after by the barber. And Harding's Laddie Boy had his own hand-carved chair for cabinet meetings and was on the White House welcoming committee. It's too easy to get corny and cute on this subject, and Rowan succumbs—only people with terminal canineophilia will want to read this all the way through.

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