Born Naked: The Early Adventures of the Author of Never Cry Wolf » (Reprint)

FARLEY MOWAT's many books, including NEVER CRY WOLF, SEA OF SLAUGHTER, and BORN NAKED, have delighted young and old alike. They have sold over fourteen million copies worldwide and have been published in fifty-two languages. He lives in Port Hope, Ontario, with his wife, the writer, Claire Mowat.

Farley Mowat's youth was charmed and hilarious, and unbelievably free in its access to unspoiled nature through bird-banding expeditions and overnight outings in the dead of winter. The author writes of sleeping in haystacks for survival, and other adventures, with equal shares of Booth Tarkington and Jack London. He also brings back Mutt, the famous hero-dog of his classic THE DOG WHO WOULDN'T BE, and his pet owl Wol, hero of OWLS IN THE FAMILY. The tale of an outrageous and clever boy, BORN NAKED takes its place as the foundation of the Farley Mowat canon.

Library Journal

To his prolific and diversified body of work ( Never Cry Wolf LJ 9/1/63; My Father's Son , LJ 1/93), Mowat, now in his seventies, adds an autobiographical account of growing up in Canada during the 1920s and 1930s. This portrait of his youth, marked by humor, sympathy, and understanding, possesses the crystalline clarity, brightness, and color of a child's world--a world in which there already exist the beginnings of most of Mowat's experiences as nature writer and activist. There are no dull pages here; every man, woman, child, and animal mentioned even casually makes an impression. But the book is more than a family album or catalog of events. Out of it rises an authentic picture of Canadian life as it existed in the first half of the century. The book should stir up interest on both sides of the border and is highly recommended to all those who like good writing. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/93.-- A.J. Anderson, GSLIS, Simmons Coll., Boston