Forget bad haircuts. Forget spinster aunts with too many cats. Forget even the tired, "Behind every great man ... " According to a new collection of mini-biographies by Maureen B. Adams, behind every great woman is a great dog.

No, Virginia Woolf's spaniel probably didn't dress like Wonder Dog here, nor did any of those profiled in Shaggy Muses: The Dogs Who Inspired Virginia Woolf, Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Edith Wharton, and Emily Brontë (Seal Press, July 31, 2007).

Adams theorizes that the pups were nonetheless heroic, deeply bonding with their human counterparts and enabling the authors to achieve in spite of physical illness, depression, and social and familial constraints. Who knew that without her pooch Flush, Barrett Browning may never have counted the ways, or that Dickinson's Newfoundland Carlo was the one audience she truly valued? I do always think that Leonard Woolf gets too much credit, so I'm happy to see Pinka — a gift from his wife's sometimes-lover Vita Sackville-West — receive his due. … continue reading