Dogs never bite you,” noted Marilyn Monroe. “Only humans do.” The iconic pinup was never without a faithful pet by her side. When she wed the playwright Arthur Miller, Hugo, a Basset Hound, kept them company in their New York apartment. And when the marriage fell apart, Frank Sinatra gifted the famed seductress with a white Toy Poodle she immediately dubbed Maf, a reference to Sinatra’s alleged mob connections.
Many famous females throughout history, whether in the worlds of entertainment, art or politics, have been great dog lovers. Whether it was championing the rights of animals, which was Doris Day’s cause, or adopting pets from shelters, like American icon of style CZ Guest, who was known to mix mutts she took in with her pedigreed pets, women have made dogs a part of their lives.
That’s the conceit of Women & Dogs: A Personal History From Marilyn to Madonna, published by Judith Watt and Peter Dyer, published by Atria Books. The small coffee-table book is a collection of images of women, from femme fatales to serious literary figures, with their dogs. The authors shared anecdotes and stories about their subjects and their relationships with their pet pooch.
Some notable figures include such literary heavyweights as Karen Blixen, Gertrude Stein, Tama Janowitz, Enid Blyton and Germaine Greer. Virginia Woolf’s Cocker Spaniel Sally, a gift from the lesbian lover she was having an affair with, inspired a story about Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Spaniel. The biographer noted that many of her manuscripts and memoirs had paw prints all over them.
Big name Hollywood stars in the golden age of cinema liked to be photographed with their pets — aside from Monroe, Lauren Bacall, Ava Gardner and even Olivia de Havilland — a trend which hasn’t changed, thanks to the likes of the soon-to-be jailed Paris Hilton and her Simple Life co-star Nicole Richie, who are on the current cover of Harper’s Bazaar with their favorite pets.
The portraits show a softer side of many of the aristocratic females, like a usually stiff Queen Elizabeth II, looking relaxed while her Corgi Susan grinned at the camera.
The book offers a glimpse into the private lives of stars as they lovingly bask in the warm affection of their dogs. There’s Elizabeth Taylor in a bubble bath, her Shih Tzus perched next to the tub; Grace Kelly lecturing her Weimaraner on the front lawn; and Joan Crawford playing with her Toy Poodles at the kitchen table, her hair wrapped in a towel.
Rare is the glimpse into the notoriously private life of such celluloid greats. Women & Dogs offers intimate portraits of these women at their most unguarded, surrounded by the creatures they love most in the world: their dogs.
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Women & Dogs: A Personal History From Marilyn to Madonna is available at Powerbooks.