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Eric's Book of Beasts

Chapter 2: Prefatory Note
By David Starr Jordan
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Poetry

About This Book

A lively collection of short, whimsical poems paired with playful black-and-white drawings, addressed to a small boy and centered on animals both real and fanciful. Each brief piece sketches a creature or scene—domestic beasts, exotic species, mythical monsters, and imagined hybrids—mixing gentle humor, absurdity, and childlike perspective. The sequence alternates comic portraits, fanciful vignettes, and occasional reflective or fantastical interludes, creating a brisk, varied flow suitable for reading aloud. The tone is light and inventive, prioritizing amusing imagery and inventive wordplay over narrative continuity, and illustrations amplify the poems' visual humor.

Prefatory Note

These cartoons were made one by one in moments of leisure to please a small boy. They are now reprinted in the hope of pleasing other small boys and girls. They were originally in color, but for the present purpose they have been made over in black and white by a Japanese artist, who has given them life by occasional quaint touches of his own.

David Starr Jordan

Stanford University, California

January 19, 1912

L'Envoi

I write and paint in doggerel

Though all the Muses shriek and yell!

I go serenely on my way

Not caring what such folks may say!

Contents

Page
Aux Animaux Frontispiece
Prefatory Note iii
L'Envoi v
Eric's Planet 2
The Caravan 4
Jack the Rabbit 6
An Elephant 8
The 'Potamus 10
My Crocodile 12
The Giraffe 14
A Goat 16
The 'Possum 18
Old Sea Catch 20
Quail 22
The Ptarmigan 24
The Pelican 26
The Man 28
The Fish 30
The Lion 32
Horned Toad 34
A Hospitable Reptile 36
A Social Lobster 38
Cats and Kings 40
Little Children 42
Six Kings 44
An Aspiring Monkey 46
Old Time Folks 48
The Wunx 50
Totem Poles 52
Organ and Organ Man 54
In Moonlight 56
Hunter and Deer 58
The Gazelle 60
A Bulldog by the River 62
The Squidgecumsquees 64
Road to Mandalay 66
Mitgard Serpent 68
Saint Georgeing the Dragon 70
Flotsam and Jetsam 72
The Atoll 74
Storm Wind 76
Eric in the Dark 78
Mars' Stars and Pa's 80
The Porcupine 82
The Purple Cow 84
I and Gnu 86
Bobo 88
The Lone Salmon 90
Bean Soup 92
A Lost Shadow 94
The Gazibou 96
In Junglest Africa 98
Eric Fishing 100
Eric's Bulldog 102
The Steering Gear 104
Brother Knight 106
My Daddy's Family 108
Christmas Past 110
The Last Act 112
Inca Tail-piece

ERIC'S BOOK OF BEASTS