Africa
in My Blood: An Autobiography in Letters: The Early Years
by Jane Goodall, Dale Peterson (Editor)
Africa may not always have been in Jane Goodall's blood, but animals
were there right from the start: the list of recipients in what one hopes
is only the first volume of her letters includes Dido the dog and Pickles
the cat. And this is no flight of editorial fantasy. Goodall always accorded
these members of her "darlingest family" their proper place alongside such
correspondents as her mother, her father, her best friend, and her mentor,
Louis Leakey (a.k.a. FFF, Foster Fairy Father). Africa in My Blood
opens with 7-year-old Valerie Jane's encounters with various canines (real
and porcelain) as well as signs of incipient naturalism--she has found
"a ded rook he died of cold" and is caretaking a "catepiler." In the same
communique she also notes that her toy chimp has a new dress. Goodall would
later prefer her primates au naturel but would continue to balance her
urge for living taxonomy with love and empathy.
Culled from more than 16,000 letters, this collection will inspire Goodall
adepts and those coming upon her for the first time. Her "autobiography
in letters" restores this icon to full, even frivolous, humanity. It also
recalls a lost era of inspired amateurism. When she went off to Nairobi
at 23 in the spring of 1957, Goodall had no formal scientific training.
Yet within weeks she had met Leakey and was soon working with him, not
to mention rebuffing his advances, though she assures her mother that "he's
much too fond of me for any monkey business."
Meanwhile, they had already discussed monkey business of a higher sort.
"There is the vaguest possible chance that little me," Goodall wrote, "may
have the chance to go right out into the wilds of the Northern Frontier
for two or 3 months to study a strange tribe of chimpanzees who may be
a new species, or sub-species. That is too heavenly to even think about."
By the summer of 1960, Goodall was installed at the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee
Reserve (which she soon termed Chimpland). And over the next year, she
made four key discoveries, if not more, and was proving herself the zoological
equal of such masters as George Schaller, having documented her subjects
eating meat as well as using tools with ease.
Africa in My Blood reminds us that Goodall was once a controversial
rather than hallowed figure, her methodology viewed with suspicion and
condescension. And as many of us happily vegetate in front of televised
slices of animal life, her awareness of her privileged position puts things
in perspective. In early 1961, Goodall recounts a complex ritual and then
asks her family: "Can you begin to imagine how I felt? The only human ever
to have witnessed such a display, in all its primitive, fantastic wonder?"
Because Goodall has written so elegantly and incisively on chimpanzee
behavior in, for instance, In the Shadow of Man and Through a Window, some
readers might initially be tempted to gloss over her descriptions of such
animals as the venerable David Greybeard and expert towel thief William
and concentrate on her own persona--teasing, hyper-enthusiastic, and absolutely
determined. When her project is threatened in 1963, she implores FFF: "You
would fall head over heels in love with all my darlings--never, never think
that I will let anything happen to them through what I am doing. I KNOW
it is right. I KNOW that I can work the Reserve the way it must. I KNOW
that I shall come back here time and time again until the problems that
remain are hardly worth mentioning." Africa in My Blood makes it clear
that, as Jane Goodall has long stressed, human and ape cannot be separated.
--Kerry
Fried - Amazon.com
Paperback: 416 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.06 x
8.66 x 5.60
Publisher: Mariner Books; (April 22, 2001)
ISBN: 0618127356
Beyond
Innocence: An Autobiography in Letters: The Later Years
by Jane Goodall, Dale Peterson (Editor)
Book Description: "This second volume of Jane Goodall's autobiography
in letters covers the years of her greatest triumphs and her deepest tragedies.
During this time she made many of her most important discoveries about
chimpanzee behavior—including the dark discovery that like us,
they wage war and commit murder. Africa in My Blood told of a young
woman finding her life's work in the place of her dreams. Beyond Innocence
tells of the events that shattered many of those dreams and changed her
from a rather private observer to a public crusader."
Hardcover: 432 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.39 x
9.30 x 6.40
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co; (July 2001)
ISBN: 0618125205
Reason
for Hope: A Spiritual Journey
by Jane Goodall, Phillip Berman (Contributor).
As a young woman, Jane Goodall was best known for her groundbreaking
fieldwork with the chimpanzees of Gombe, Africa. Goodall's work has always
been controversial, mostly because she broke the mold of research scientist
by developing meaningful relationships with her "specimens" and honoring
their lives as she would other humans.
Now at the age of 60, she continues to break the mold of scientist by
revealing how her research and worldwide conservation institutes spring
from her childhood callings and adult spiritual convictions. Reason for
Hope is a smoothly written memoir that does not shy away from facing the
realities of environmental destruction, animal abuse, and genocide. But
Goodall shares her antidote to the poison of despair with specific examples
of why she has not lost faith. For instance, she shares her spiritual epiphany
during a visit to Auschwitz; her bravery in the face of chimpanzee imprisonment
in medical laboratories; and devotes a whole chapter to individuals, corporations,
and countries that are doing the right thing. But most of all Goodall provides
a beautifully written plea for why everyone can and must find a reason
for hope. --Gail Hudson - Amazon.com
Paperback: 282 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.83 x
9.04 x 6.03
Publisher: Warner Books; (October 2000)
ISBN: 0446676136
The
Ten Trusts: What We Must Do to Care for the Animals We Love
by Jane Goodall, Marc Bekoff.
Hardcover: 224 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.85 x
8.36 x 6.48
Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco; (October 8, 2002)
ISBN: 0062517570
Through
a Window
by Jane Goodall
Paperback: 272 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.80 x
8.93 x 5.96
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co; Reissue edition (April
21, 2000)
ISBN: 0618056777
In
the Shadow of Man
by Jane Goodall, Hugo Van Lawick (Photographer), Stephen Jay Gould.
Book Description: This best-selling classic tells the story
of one of the world's greatest scientific adventures. Jane Goodall was
a young secretarial school graduate when the legendary Louis Leakey chose
her to undertake a landmark study of chimpanzees in the wild. In the Shadow
of Man is an absorbing account of her early years at Gombe Stream Reserve,
telling us of the remarkable discoveries she made as she got to know the
chimps and they got to know her. This paperback edition, illustrated with
80 photographs, includes an introduction by Stephen Jay Gould and a postscript
by Goodall. During Goodall's forty years of studying chimpanzees, she has
become one of the world's most honored scientists. She tells of the later
years in THROUGH A WINDOW, also available in Mariner paperback. AFRICA
IN MY BLOOD: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY IN LETTERS tells the story, through her letters,
of childhood through the early years at Gombe.
Paperback: 304 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.90 x
8.86 x 5.92
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co; Revised edition (April
21, 2000)
ISBN: 0618056769
Jane
Goodall, 40 Years at Gombe: A Tribute to Four Decades of Wildlife Research,,
Education, and Conservation
by Jennifer Lindsey, Jane Goodall, Gilbert M. Grosvenor (Foreword)
Jane Goodall is the most famous primatologist, possibly the most famous
field biologist, of the 20th century. Her chimpanzee research did more
to increase human knowledge of the lives of our closest relatives than
that of any other scientist. It's in large part due to her example that
primatology is the closest thing to a female-dominated science.
But in 1986 Goodall gave up fieldwork for a higher, more pressing calling:
rescuing chimpanzees from inhumane conditions in captivity and preserving
the species from extinction. Jane Goodall: 40 Years at Gombe is a pictorial
tribute to her life, her studies of the chimpanzees, and her unflagging
efforts to motivate human beings on their behalf.
"Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every
individual makes a difference." Goodall began her research by giving the
chimpanzees names, by observing them as nonhuman individuals. Her activism
is directed toward the human individuals: scientists who use apes in research,
Africans who live near wild apes, children in Africa and in the industrialized
world who can learn to value other creatures for themselves. Goodall says
of this last project that "I think Roots & Shoots is probably the reason
I came into the world. Yet I couldn't have done it without all those years
with the chimpanzees and an understanding that led to a blurring of the
line between 'man' and 'beasts.'" --Mary Ellen Curtin - Amazon.com
Hardcover: 128 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.76 x
11.09 x 10.14
Publisher: Stewart, Tabori & Chang; (November 15,
1999)
ISBN: 1556709471
Jane
Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees (2002) DVD
Did you know that chimpanzees and humans have 98 percent of their DNA
in common? You will after watching this absorbing 75-minute (including
extras) documentary, featuring and partially narrated by renowned researcher
Jane Goodall, who's been on the chimps' case for more than four decades.
We see these African apes on the ground and in trees, playing, grooming,
teaching, even killing one another. The scenes of them "fishing" for termites
and ants using a stick for a pole make for extraordinary viewing; indeed,
the film's principal message is that they and we are very much alike. And
while the small screen can't capture the full majesty of what began as
an IMAX film, one can sense the almost palpable three-dimensionality of
the original. The DVD is also loaded with bonus features, including a 15-minute
behind-the-scenes look at the filmmaking process and more. This is great
stuff. --Sam Graham - Amazon.com
National
Geographic's Among the Wild Chimpanzees (1989) VHS
by National Geographic Society.
Jane Goodall is legendary among primate researchers, and for good reason--she
learned more on her own studying chimpanzees than all who went before her
combined. National Geographic's Among the Wild Chimpanzees looks at her
life's work from 1960, when she first came to Tanzania's Gombe Reserve,
to the early 1980s, showing her quiet determination to observe these animals
closely while disturbing them as little as possible. Gaining their trust
through months and years of noninterference, she gathered an unprecedented
wealth of information on their rich social lives. We see playing, fighting,
grooming, and even the once-controversial tool-use among the remarkably
human-seeming chimpanzees. Goodall's grace and scientific curiosity really
shine; she is a model for field biologists the world over. Among the Wild
Chimpanzees is perfect for ape lovers, budding scientists, and anyone captivated
by the lush African forests. --Rob Lightner - Amazon.com
National
Geographic's Jane Goodall: My Life With the Chimpanzees (1995) VHS
by National Geographic Society
This is a well-made documentary with excellent footage, a complementary
musical score, and a well-organized narrative that gives viewers a full
portrait of a woman who, in 1960, went alone into the heart of Africa at
the age of 26 and remained there for decades studying chimpanzees.
Louis Leakey chose Goodall's vocation for her. As his secretary she
did not think she had the proper qualifications to study chimps, but he
knew otherwise. He sent her to Gombe National Park in Tanzania. The details
of Goodall's life given in this video describe not only why Goodall chose
such an unusual life but how she has been able to do it, giving the viewer
a reason to care about her and in turn about the chimps.
By observing the chimp societies for three decades, she discovered that
they used tools, and though she originally thought they were more gentle
than humans, she learned they had a dark side too. In 1975 four of her
students were kidnapped by armed rebels from Zaire and were held for 10
weeks. Goodall was harshly criticized for caring more about her research
than about her students. Confronting the controversy on film makes for
fascinating dialogue as Goodall defends herself.
In Jane Goodall: My Life with the Chimpanzees, viewers will learn as
much about this incredibly outspoken woman as about the chimps. Her crusade
to save them in the wild (at the time of the filming there were only 160
chimps left in Gombe National Park) is extremely important, as is her campaign
to improve the situations of chimps in zoos or in laboratories living in
horrible conditions. A visit to the chimp cages in a U.S. lab is done with
utmost taste but is still mind-blowing. With a smile and mimicking a chimp's
hello, Goodall gently forces us all to question the ethics of animal testing.
--Cristina
Del Sesto - Amazon.com
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