1949. First Edition Thus. 237 pages. Paperback book with pictorial cover. Pages and binding are presentable with no major defects. Minor issues present such as mild cracking, inscriptions, inserts, light foxing, tanning and thumb marking. Overall a good condition item. Paper cover has mild edge wear with light rubbing and creasing. Some light marking and tanning.
Alfred Ollivant (1874–1927) was an English novelist best known for his children's classic Bob, Son of Battle. Ollivant also wrote about a dozen other novels ranging from small-scale cautionary tales to grand historical epics.
Alfred Ollivant was born in Nuthurst, Sussex, in 1874 and became an author after a horse-riding injury ending his brief military career. Bob, Son of Battle, his first novel, was published in 1898. Set in rural Cumbria, in northern England, the novel centers on a suspected sheepkilling collie Bob.
Even though most of the book's dialogue is written in the Cumbrian dialect, it gained a popular following in the United States. Ollivant even published a sequel, Danny, in 1902. He was also a short story contributor to The Atlantic Monthly and the Boston Evening Transcript. Alfred Ollivant died in London on January 19, 1927.