The True Story of Fala

by Margaret (Daisy) Suckley and Alice Dalgliesh

drawings by E.N. Fairchild

The story of  “The dog that owned a president”

trade paper, 6″ x 9″, 80 pages

48 drawings & historic photographs

$13.95, isbn 9781883789787

published in conjunction with Wilderstein Preservation

Fala was the Scotty dog who was

the friend and companion

of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Fala was sometimes serious,

Sometimes happy,

Sometimes pleading

And always charming.

You will want to read about him in this book.

So went the jacket copy in 1942 for the first edition of The True Story of Fala, written by Margaret (Daisy) Suckley for her close friend and distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt and celebrating the loveable Scotty dog she gave the president—the dog that became FDR’s constant companion at the White House, at press conferences, during meetings with ambassadors and heads of state, at home in Hyde Park, New York, on the yacht Potomac, and even aboard the HMS Prince of Wales when FDR had his first historic, and highly secret, meeting at sea with Winston Churchill during World War Two.

            Fala was the most famous dog of his time and maybe the most famous dog in all of American history.

            This classic children’s book about a dog and his president has been reissued by Wilderstein Preservation and Black Dome Press with a new foreword by J. Winthrop Aldrich, founding board president of Wilderstein Preservation, and with new photographs and background information on author Daisy Suckley—but with all the old photographs and drawings and the style and design of the original children’s classic that has entertained generations.

It is a delight to welcome a new edition of The True Story of Fala. This is an enduring charmer of a book—fun alike for children, for dog-lovers and for older readers who can recall childhood newsreels of President Roosevelt with his celebrated Scotty. The cute drawings of Fala’s high-jinks complement the historic photographs of the wartime President. Secret Service agents protecting FDR gave Fala a code name, The Informer, because to see him taking the air at the end of his leash was to know that the traveling Commander-in-Chief was aboard the nearby train. …

            May The True Story of Fala and tales of The Informer—the little black dog in the big white house—continue to warm our hearts for many years to come. J. Winthrop Aldrich