The Tails Book: A Modern Bestiary

Abstract

This book was shaped by a wonderful whim, and I am including it in the collection on a whim. It does not include a fable, but the wisdom it contains is so like the wisdom of fables that I want to hang onto this book for the next person who reads fables. The book is about the variety of uses to which animals with tails put their tails. It is a come to think of it book. Until we think about it, we do not realize the wide variety of uses animals make of their tails. Thus early chapters--each of a few pages, with an initial and one illustration--present the horse's fly-whisker, the cat's amusement, the porcupine's spear-thruster, the dog's smiler, the crocodile's club, and the peacock's way to attract a wife. The book belonged to the Shadowbrook Library in Lenox. This is not the first time that I have bought back a book that once belonged to a Jesuit library!