sell over a million copies, and by the late 1930s had sold over 7 million copies worldwide. In 1902, a sequel, Beautiful Joe's Paradise, was published. In 1934, Saunders was granted Canada's highest civilian award at the time, Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire or C.B.E. In 1963, the official Beautiful Joe Park was named in Meaford, next to the Moore house where Beautiful Joe was rehabilitated by Louise Moore. A Beautiful Joe Heritage Society was formed in 1994 to preserve Joe's legacy and ultimately establish the Moore residence as a museum. Connection with Black Beauty Saunders did not avoid comparison of her work to the similarly themed Black Beauty. Indeed, she makes reference to Black Beauty in the very first page of Beautiful Joe, not referring to it by name but writing [from Joe's viewpoint] "I have seen my mistress laughing and crying over a little book that she says is a story of a horse's life". Joe goes on to say that he will write the story of a dog's life, to similarly please his owner. Thus, within the context of the book at least, Beautiful Joe is directly inspired by Black Beauty. See also List of individual dogs References External links Beautiful Joe Heritage Society Beautiful Joe Park, Meaford Ontario historical plaque - Beautiful Joe Beautiful Joe: An Autobiography Philadelphia: The Griffith and Rowland Press, 1893, at A Celebration of Women Writers Beautiful Joe (1893), with an introduction by Hezekiah Butterworth. Illustrated. From Internet Archive, a scanned book. Individual dogs Animal cruelty incidents Fiction about animal cruelty Novels about dogs Individual animals in Canada