Shiloh (novel) - Autobiographical Elements

Autobiographical Elements

I went to investigate and found a dog that I assumed to be a beagle, though in truth it was a mixed breed of who-knows-what. But it was the saddest looking dog I had ever seen—skinny, ill-kept, hungry, and obviously mistreated. Its tail was wagging hopefully, but every time I put out my hand to touch it, the dog trembled and shook, and crawled away on its belly as though I were about to do it bodily harm.

In a 1992 interview about Shiloh, Naylor said: "Like a patchwork quilt, a novel is made up of things that have happened to me and things I have heard or read about, all mixed up with imaginings." Naylor's characters are frequently based on herself and her two sons. She penned the novel following an excursion with her husband, Rex, to visit their friends, Frank and Trudy Madden, in West Virginia. Naylor and Rex were strolling along a river when they discovered a dog in the grass following them. Dejected and frightened, the dog was "the saddest, most mistreated-looking beagle I'd ever seen", Naylor later said. Because the dog frequently shuddered and slunk forward on her belly, Naylor suspected she had been abused. On a whim, Naylor whistled and the dog rushed forward, lapping Naylor's face. Tailing them until they reached the Maddens' house, the beagle remained under a tree, her paws cushioning her head during the drizzly afternoon. Naylor cried during her and her husband's trip home that night.

Rex asked her if she would have a "nervous breakdown" or if she would "do something about it". That "something" referred to writing a book, which she did. She believed that someone had abused the dog and was confronted by a series of questions:

What if I knew who was abusing it? What if I knew who it belonged to? What if the dog kept running to me? Then, if you write for children, you think about what if I was 11 years old?

The Maddens resided near Shiloh, West Virginia, where Naylor found the abused dog in 1989, so she decided to name the book's dog Shiloh. Because the Maddens' post office address is in Friendly, West Virginia, Naylor chose the town as her book's setting. Trudy and Frank Madden adopted the abused dog Naylor had seen. Trudy Madden said in a 1997 interview that Naylor's description of Shiloh, West Virginia, was precise. By following the directions in Shiloh and its sequels, the town's houses, mill, and schoolhouse could be located easily.