Beautiful Joe is a story about a mongrel dog named Joe. It was written by Margaret Marshall Saunders under the name Marshall Saunders, and published in 1893. It won a Humane Society competition. The book was a bestseller and directed public interest to animal cruelty. Joe was a real dog, brutally abused by his owner. He was rescued and his story told as an autobiography. Saunders wrote a sequel called "Beautiful Joe's Paradise".