Ten of the Oldest Books on my TBR
(I am very bad about cross-posting these here lately, but what if I finally tried this time and posted something to LJ that wasn't just a TBR)
This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is about the ten oldest (by publication date) books on your TBR, suggested by Nicole of Bookwyrm Knits, and may I just say: this is an awesome suggestion! I’ve been so excited that the last couple of topics slipped past me, between work and putting all my effort into making sure I got this one done on time. [
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You may not know this about me, but I have a lot of old books. I don’t always read a lot of them these days, but I used to, and am always aspiring to get back into that practice.
For the sake of being interesting, I’m limiting my list to 1 book per author - because frankly, this could almost have been called “Ten Oldest Authors Whose Entire Catalog Is On My Literary Bucket List” - and am not including any super-well-known classics or Newbery winners that are on my vague “might try it someday” list. For this post, I’m drawing from books I own or that are on my Goodreads TBR, the latter of which is for books that I actively wanted to read within the next year when I added them (and still want to, obviously).
I cannot overstate the massive amount of Old Horse & Dog Books I own, I really cannot. Teenage Me had a high school library full of them and a dream of replicating it in her own home, and has spent her Working Adult Life and disposable income making it come true.
(regrettably, I do not know where enough of the ones I own are to take a photograph of the stack like I wanted, and finding pics online is hard sometimes so I just went with the easiest options to size together that I still thought looked nice)
1. The Solitary Summer - Elizabeth Von Armin (1899)
I found a very old copy of Elizabeth & Her German Garden for $2 earlier this year and immediately wanted to read more from her; this is the oldest of the handful I’m interested in, and this sequel is the one I most want next. Now, to animal books!
2. Greyfriars Bobby - Eleanor Atkinson (1912)
The classic dog-visits-master’s-grave-daily-til-death in its original incarnation - bought a proper 1910s version in an antique store once. The Scottish dialect in already old-fashioned writing intimidates me, but…dog!
3. Lochinvar Luck - Albert Payson Terhune (1923)
Technically this encompasses several other books because he’s one of the authors I want to read ALL the dog books from - even just counting unread books I own and that are old enough to make this list, I also have The Heart of a Dog (’24); My Friend the Dog (’26); Gray Dawn (’27); A Dog Named Chips (’31); and Bruce (’36). At this point I could make an entire game out of treating his books like new releases and reading one a year, exactly a century after they were first published…
p.s. I have absolutely no idea what any of the plots are about besides “collies [and occasionally a different breed] being heroic in over the top, cracking good adventure style.”
4. The Painted Stallion - Hal G. Evarts (1926)
Honestly I don’t know if this is more horse story or pure Western - the existence of a 1937 movie by the same name suggests the latter - but the cover and title were enough for me to buy it from a Shabby Chic store for $4 (my copy is in terrible shape but I wanted to reward her for having a Store Dog, and I remain stubborn about reading it before I release it).
5. Chinook and His Family - Eva Brunell Seeley & Martha A. Lane (1930)
Bought several years ago at Half Price Books for a full $15 (at half off!) because the dog on the cover looked similar to mine. It’s an engaging little textbook-like series of narrative nonfiction stories for children, complete with activities/questions to answer in back, about the history of the Chinook breed/type, stemming from this specific dog (and, you guessed it, his family). It’s also illustrated with black and white photographs, which are a treat. [edit: I also keep forgetting this dog was v. famous in his time, as both a sled racing dog and later for going on the Byrd Antarctic expedition; linked article summarizes some history]
6. Roc: A Dog’s Eye View of War - Edmund Vale (1931)
Set during WWI, as you might guess from the publication date. Saw this in an antiquarian bookstore and requested it for a birthday because it was old and about a dog and kinda rare. I am still excited to read it! …someday.
7. Silver: The Story of a Wild Horse - Thomas C. Hinkle (1934)
I haven’t actually read him before! But I own this and also Cinchfoot: The Story of a Range Horse (’38), and Tawny: A Dog of the Old West (’48), and his entire catalog of old-timey horse & dog adventures in the Wild West sound great. These were my favorite kind of books as a kid, and even as a teen.
8. National Velvet - Enid Bagnold (1935)
Now in the opposite direction, so far east it’s across an ocean… I’ve mentioned this before so suffice to say I still feel like I SHOULD read this classic horse story, even though I’m less excited about it than literally a hundred other horse books I own, most of which were published before 1970. My copy is a sorry little mass market paperback, too, so if I read it and give it 3 stars it is OUT the door.
9. Rusty: A Cocker Spaniel - Col. S.P. Meek (1938)
The cover tells me all I need to know about this. (but Meek is another author I want to read everything I can find from because I just know I’ll like his stuff, even though I haven’t read him before and this is the only one I own)
10. Lassie Come-Home - Eric Knight (1940)
The dog-book version of a classic I feel like I ~should~ read, though I am more excited about this one than National Velvet at least. Contemplating getting the pretty (and $4) collector’s edition on BookOutlet right now, actually, since the one I own is a vintage mass market Scholastic that I picked up in a batch of old dog books like 15 years ago and simply haven’t ever come across a nicer copy at a used book sale to replace it.
Maybe one of my reading goals for 2025 should be to read at least one of these titles specifically.
Anyhoo… all that and we didn’t even really make it into the 1940s! And I STILL can’t guarantee these are actually all the oldest, as I am suddenly thinking of other ’30s authors whose work I am generally interested in reading more of, I just forgot in the moment since I don’t own or have any on Goodreads (and I don’t wanna redo the image again). You see why I have spent so much of my TTT tenure cursing the distraction and siren call of new releases…
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