Joy Adamson (1910–1980)

This is a review of the "The Complete Story", an omnibus of the 3 Free books published in the early 1960s, about Elsa the Lion and her cubs. I have fond emotional memories of the movie and/or TV series in the 1970s but the details are hazy, so wanted to revisit. It's very interesting on a number of levels. Of course a great love story between humans and intelligent animal. Elsa herself is epic, she straddled the world as both wild lion and tame. If Elsa was truly free or not is debatable, show more she was groomed by the Adamsons. Whatever the case, both lion and people found the relationship mutually rewarding for different reasons and it worked, until it didn't. That may be the lesson, wild animals can't live in both worlds at once and remain safe. I found Joy's writing to be evocative of the place and time and transportive to an outdoor life in Africa. It was an influential book for its time, turning many people into animal rights activists when such a thing was still fairly new. Jane Goodall a few years later surfed this wave with her monumental first book about the Gombe Stream chimpanzees. One thing almost entirely lacking from Free, which could have propelled it to greatness, is a sense of who Joy and George Adamson are. They are entirely focused and devoted to Elsa and cubs, I wanted to know more but they remain distant, except in their relationship to the lions. show less

Една от първите книги, които прочетох като малък, Лъвицата Елза е също една от първите книги, които са написани от изследователна дивата природа в Африка по собствени наблюдения върху поведението на животните, а не от пътешественик, ловец и първопроходник по собствените show more му наблюдения свързани с отстрелването им.

Накратко, жената на един горски (от тогава британското колониално управление) отглежда женско лъвче, като пораства го пуска на свобода и продължава да го наблюдава през следващите години как живее, ловува, създава семейство. show less

Published in 1960, Born Free remains an appealing account of how something wild can get into one’s heart. The more than 100 photos are a great help, forming a visual record of the efforts of author Joy Adamson and her husband George to raise a lion cub named Elsa. Elsa’s cubhood is a delight. It was followed by hard work that began when Elsa neared maturity and the Adamsons endeavored to return her to a wild life. The novelties of the experiences they had and the results of Elsa’s show more education in this radically different life never fail to interest.

Joy and George are awed by Elsa throughout and Joy’s book expresses great love for this lioness and also for the East African countryside in which she and her husband lived and traveled. George comments, “I really have no patience with people who maintain that an animal’s life and actions are governed by pure instinct and conditioned reflexes. Nothing except reasoning powers can explain the careful strategy used by a pride of lions in hunting, and the many examples we have had from Elsa of intelligent and thought-out behavior.”

Note: During the course of the story, George kills a lot of animals. Some are shot to feed Elsa. Some of it is in performance of his duties as game warden. Be forewarned if you know you’ll hate the killing. show less

This is her autobiography. It is mostly about her childhood in Austria, how her large family estate was dissolved during war times, how she came to Africa and finally met George Adamson.... I had forgotten that she was an accomplished artist- she tells how she first began painting indigenous plants, particularly wildflowers, and became well-known for it. She also undertook an immense project painting portraits of native tribesmen in their traditional or ceremonial clothing, taking pains to show more be sure the items worn were authentic. To make a visual record of cultures that were quickly vanishing. These portraits became famous too. While accompanying George on work safaris, she often went along to search for new plants or tribesmen to paint. Sometimes went on her own travels to do so as well. The descriptions of all the various places she travelled to across Africa really intrigued me. Joy tells of many adventures they had, briefly mentions some of the wild animals they rescued or raised as orphans, and describes the stress she suffered while doing hectic book tours after the astonishing popularity of Born Free.

I did not know until long after I had read her first books about the lions, that her marriage suffered a lot and she was apparently a very difficult person to get along with, perhaps even mentally ill or autistic. It's to her credit that in this book she has nothing ill to say of George, in fact she barely mentions him (perhaps that is telling).... Interestingly, Joy mentioned in this book that when she wrote the first account of Elsa, she was advised by a friend to avoid anthropomorphizing the lion so that people would realize she was telling the truth and take her book seriously. Perhaps that's why the account has always felt rather dry to me, just so many facts related. Still, they're incredible stories.

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