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Biography & Autobiography Science & Technology

Gorillas in the Mist

The Passion of Dian Fossey

by (author) Farley Mowat

Publisher
McClelland & Stewart
Initial publish date
Oct 2009
Category
Science & Technology, Primates, Women
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780771064685
    Publish Date
    Oct 2009
    List Price
    $22.99

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Description

Originally titled Virunga, this is the story of Dian Fossey, the mountain gorillas’ greatest champion and martyr. Based on Fossey’s personal papers and on interviews with her colleagues, friends, and enemies, Gorillas in the Mist reveals one woman’s passion for life – and the creatures who share it with us.

About the author

Farley Mowat was born in Belleville, Ontario, in 1921. He began writing upon his return from serving in World War II, and has since written 44 books. He spent much of his youth in Saskatoon, and has lived in Ontario, Cape Breton and Newfoundland, while travelling frequently to Canada's far north. Throughout, Mowat has remained a determined environmentalist, despairing at the ceaseless work of human cruelty. Yet his ability to capture the tragic comedy of human life on earth has made him a national treasure in Canada, and a beloved storyteller to readers around the world. His internationally celebrated books include People of the Deer, The Dog Who Wouldn't Be, Sea of Slaughter, and The Boat Who Wouldn't Float.

Farley Mowat's profile page

Excerpt: Gorillas in the Mist: The Passion of Dian Fossey (by (author) Farley Mowat)

— 1 —

Neither destiny nor fate took me to Africa. Nor was it romance. I had a deep wish to see and live with wild animals in a world that hadn't yet been completely changed by humans. I guess I really wanted to go backward in time. From my childhood I believed that was what going to Africa would be, but by 1963, when I was first able to make a trip there, it was not that way anymore. There were only a few places other than the deserts and the swamps that hadn't been overrun by peo ple. Almost at the end of my trip I found the place I had been looking for.

Right in the heart of central Africa, so high up that you shiver more than you sweat, are great, old volcanoes towering up almost fifteen thousand feet, and nearly covered with rich, green rain forest – the Virungas.

Going to Africa was one of many dreams that filled Dian Fossey's lonely childhood. Her father, George Fossey, son of an English immigrant, was a big, affable, outdoorsy type who loved his little daughter but hated his impoverished life as an insurance agent in San Francisco. In consequence he drank too much, which got him into trouble with the law and finally brought on a divorce that took him out of Dian's life in 1938 when she was six. A year later her mother, Kitty, married Richard Price, an ambitious, hard-driving building contractor. In the beginning, George Fossey tried to keep in touch with Dian, sending her pictures of himself in his navy uniform during the war; but even his name was taboo in the Price household and eventually he drifted out of sight.

Although she dutifully called him Daddy, Dian's stepfather never adopted her. Richard Price was a stern traditionalist who believed that children should be properly disciplined. Until she was ten, Dian was not even permitted to take her evening meal with Richard and Kitty, but ate in the kitchen with the housekeeper. "I had always been brought up to think that children dined with adults when they were becoming adults," Price offered in justification.

Like many lonely children Dian loved animals and took comfort from their undemanding acceptance of her; yet she was not permitted any pets of her own except for a goldfish, upon which she lavished the affection that had few other outlets. The death of the fish left her desolate.

I cried for a week when I found him floating belly up in the bowl in my room. My parents thought it was good riddance, so I never got another. A friend at school offered me a hamster, but they considered it dirty, so that was out.

Editorial Reviews

“A powerful and sympathetic account of a remarkable life.” —Maclean’s
“Farley Mowat, conservationist, icon of the Canadian North and noted undesirable in the eyes of American authorities, has seized Fossey as kin . . . In telling Fossey's story, Mowat has abandoned the traditional role of biographer . . . [he] writes the most important story: the life of an impassioned conservationist, the last bulwark between an endangered and majestic species and the crude vagaries of the tourist ashtray.” —Don Gillmor, Montreal Gazette
“A picture of Fossey that is tender and true . . . rich with anecdotes that show Fossey in all her grit and glory.” —Washington Post
“A masterfully orchestrated chronicle . . . Dian Fossey and Farley Mowat are perfectly matched . . . the book they created together should be savored.” —San Francisco Chronicle

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