The famous person with the collie dog is Jack London. London is 9 years old at the time of this photograph.
The collie’s name is Rollo.
Later, Jack London would write about the exploits of a dog that was a mix of “Scotch shepherd” (collie) and St. Bernard in The Saturday Evening Post.
The first story ran a little long, but it eventually formed into the novel The Call of the Wild.
Many people erroneously think that the main character in that novel is a wolf-dog. However, in the novel and the better film adaptations of the work, Buck is a dog. White Fang is the novel about the wolf-dog. The novels should thought of a opposites. In The Call of the Wild, a civilized California dog learns to become wary and tough, eventually running wild with a pack of wolves. White Fang is about a half-wild wolf-dog that learns to become civilized and loyal to man.
When I was a boy, The Call of the Wild was my favorite novel.
“The Call Of The Wild” and “White Fang” were also two of my favorite books growing up, and still are! And of course, I have watched as many movie versions of them as possible–it has always irked me greatly when they use a German Shepherd(which was only just being developed as a breed at the historical time of the novel) to portray Buck, as they did in several versions(including one starring Charleton Heston–suprisingly bad despite this actor’s normal standards, and a purty good Ricky Schroeder version). At least in the old Clark Gable version they used a Saint Bernard, which was half right! One version(John Beck?) from the 70’s used a Saint BernardXGerman Shepherd cross, which was purty close, and they did a good job. The most recent version I’ve seen was with Rutger Hauer, and used–I thought a clever choice–Leonbergers to portray Buck! About what a CollieXSaint Bernard cross would look like–but dangit- they used a long-haired GSD as “Spitz”! I also think the Disney “White Fang” movies were okay, definetely worth the scenery and animal work. I actually got to meet one of the people who worked with the animals on the first “White Fang” movie, as a lecturer at a wolf hybrid “rendezvous”, and see how some of the behind-the-scenes stuff was done! They bent over backwards doing right by the animals ethically during filming in that one…..