About the Author
Image credit: Vicki Constantine Croke
Works by Vicki Croke
Elephant Company: The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in World War II (2014) 514 copies
The Lady and the Panda: The True Adventures of the First American Explorer to Bring Back China's Most Exotic Animal (2005) 336 copies
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- Croke, Vicki Constantine
- Birthdate
- 20th century
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Places of residence
- Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Occupations
- journalist
Writer
Producer (CNN) - Organizations
- Boston Globe
- Short biography
- VICKI CONSTANTINE CROKE has been covering pets and wildlife for more than two decades -- and, obviously, has been having a good time doing it.
Now reporting regularly on animal issues for NECN TV, she previously wrote The Boston Globe's "Animal Beat" column for for 13 years. A former writer and producer for CNN, she has been a contributing reporter for the National Public Radio environment show Living on Earth covering everything from gorilla conservation to a coyote vasectomy.
She consults on film and television projects, most recently a two-hour documentary on gorillas for the A&E channel. Croke is the author of "The Modern Ark: The Story of Zoos-Past, Present and Future," and has also written for Time, People, The Washington Post, Popular Science, O, The Oprah Magazine, Gourmet, National Wildlife, Discover, International Wildlife, The London Sunday Telegraph, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Members
Reviews
Elephant Company : the inspiring story of an… by Vicki Constantine Croke
Not finished because Williams reminded me so much of my deceased husband that I became emotional. I then bought the book and it sat on my bedside table for a while. I should find it and resume reading. It’s a wonderful story.
Young newlywed socialite Ruth Harkness hoped to join her husband on his excursion to central China to bring to the US the world’s rarest bear - the Giant Panda. Unfortunately he died in a Shanghai hospital, so she has to do it herself. Through a combination of risk-taking, preparedness, and mostly luck, Harkness successfully brought a baby Giant Panda to Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo in 1936 and returned to China two more times to try again.
My expectations for this book were very low but I absolutely loved it. It's hard to have a lot of sympathy for a rich socialite during the Great Depression but she was very progressive in her views on and treatment of animals, and significantly less racist against the Chinese people than most of her contemporaries. This story should definitely be a movie - it has the perfect villain in an older white male explorer who is kind of going off the deep end and focusing all of his hubris on misogyny against Ruth and spreading lies that she bought her baby panda from him instead of finding it herself, as well as a young Chinese explorer that Ruth has a secret affair with while trekking into the mountains. I learned a great deal about China in the 1930s, as Ruth’s second and third expeditions were stymied by the Nanking Massacre and its aftermath.
In particular, the endnotes of this book were spectacular - every sentence, from the weather on particular days to emotions a character was feeling, is extensively sourced from personal letters, contemporary newspaper articles, and interviews. There are also some short anecdotes and details in the endnotes, which Croke says she could not fit into the story but wanted to make sure they were included in the book as they had never before been published. How thoughtful.… (more)
My expectations for this book were very low but I absolutely loved it. It's hard to have a lot of sympathy for a rich socialite during the Great Depression but she was very progressive in her views on and treatment of animals, and significantly less racist against the Chinese people than most of her contemporaries. This story should definitely be a movie - it has the perfect villain in an older white male explorer who is kind of going off the deep end and focusing all of his hubris on misogyny against Ruth and spreading lies that she bought her baby panda from him instead of finding it herself, as well as a young Chinese explorer that Ruth has a secret affair with while trekking into the mountains. I learned a great deal about China in the 1930s, as Ruth’s second and third expeditions were stymied by the Nanking Massacre and its aftermath.
In particular, the endnotes of this book were spectacular - every sentence, from the weather on particular days to emotions a character was feeling, is extensively sourced from personal letters, contemporary newspaper articles, and interviews. There are also some short anecdotes and details in the endnotes, which Croke says she could not fit into the story but wanted to make sure they were included in the book as they had never before been published. How thoughtful.… (more)
The story of Billy Williams alone would rate 5 stars. The author's rendering of it lowered it to 4 stars. The writing seems forced at times as if the author is trying too hard to write a good novel: there was way too much foreshadowing which I found unnecessary. This is a beautiful story and it did not need such techniques.
A fantastic read about a fascinating person. Wonderful descriptions of Burma. You could feel the personality of the elephants through the work.
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Statistics
- Works
- 9
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 1,058
- Popularity
- #24,346
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 62
- ISBNs
- 35
- Languages
- 3