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The Dark Romance of Dian Fossey
Traces the remarkable life of the controversial primatologist, detailing her relationship with Louis Leakey, her stormy experiences in defending the gorillas she studied, and the circumstances surrounding her brutal, still unsolved murder
351 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1990
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July 2, 2019
Page 265-266 (my book)
What was about to happen next was of a different order of magnitude. In a sequence which seemed never to end, one experience more meaningful than the next., “Digit” [the mountain gorilla] became involved with Fossey. He didn’t just touch her and then run away. First, he took her glove in hand and sniffed it, and then her pencil, and then he put that down and picked up her notebook and put it back down. Then, nestling in beside her, he rolled over and went to sleep.
Both Fossey and Campell [the photographer] instantly realized what they had captured. Without prompting, without encouragement, a wild mountain gorilla had proved what Fossey had been trying to show the rest of the world. He had demonstrated the gentleness and empathy of his species. He had shown his kinship with human beings. In 1973, this strip of film would be the centerpiece of a National Geographic television special... [It would be] seen by tens of millions of people who were startled and beguiled as for the first time they saw what they had never imagined possible.
Page 180 Alexie Forrester, at on time engaged to Dian Fossey
“She was extremely lonely up there [in the Virunga Mountains] and very frightened. Despite her bravado things tended to get out of proportion. She had in fact overstepped her environment by a great deal. Most Americans have not much sensitivity for living outside the U.S. Certainly she didn’t have any – she felt Africa was just another Sunset Strip, and she could go around insisting on her rights. It doesn’t work that way.”
This is an excellent biography capturing the complexities of her tragic and fated character.
Dian Fossey in 1966 at the age of 34 decided to uproot her life as an occupational therapist in Kentucky to study and live with the mountain gorillas in the Virunga mountains, first in the Congo and then, when the situation there became too turbulent, she went on the Rwanda side of the Virunga mountains. Sadly, she was murdered in 1985. Nobody knows who did it.
In Kentucky she attended a lecture by Louis Leaky, a world famous paleoanthropologist living in Africa, and convinced him that she wanted to be his latest version of Jane Goodall, the chimpanzee woman, but in Dian Fossey’s case she would be studying gorillas. Leaky was known to choose non-specialists for research – he had done just that very successfully with Jane Goodall.
Even before, Dian Fossey was somewhat of a misfit, being much more comfortable with animals and children than adults. Even though she spent several years in the Congo and Rwanda she only learnt rudimentary Swahili and French. She did not adapt well to the African people and treated them abominably. And she was not that much better with many of her white students who came from England or the U.S. One could easily say that she was not a people person. But at times she could be very gracious like when visiting the U.S. embassy in Kigali, Rwanda.
She treated Virunga National Park in Rwanda as her own personal fiefdom. She would shoot at poachers. She would chase away infringing farmers who were merely looking for more land for their cattle to graze on. In her research she would often be accused of anthropomorphism (giving human traits to animals). As this book was published in 1990 I do not know if that is still a valid criticism in todays' animal research world.
While it is true that Dian Fossey is responsible during her lifetime of saving the mountain gorilla, she was not cognisant of the African continent and the diversity and issues surrounding its people. This ultimately led to her death.
This is an enthralling biography exploring many aspects of the life of this remarkable woman.
What was about to happen next was of a different order of magnitude. In a sequence which seemed never to end, one experience more meaningful than the next., “Digit” [the mountain gorilla] became involved with Fossey. He didn’t just touch her and then run away. First, he took her glove in hand and sniffed it, and then her pencil, and then he put that down and picked up her notebook and put it back down. Then, nestling in beside her, he rolled over and went to sleep.
Both Fossey and Campell [the photographer] instantly realized what they had captured. Without prompting, without encouragement, a wild mountain gorilla had proved what Fossey had been trying to show the rest of the world. He had demonstrated the gentleness and empathy of his species. He had shown his kinship with human beings. In 1973, this strip of film would be the centerpiece of a National Geographic television special... [It would be] seen by tens of millions of people who were startled and beguiled as for the first time they saw what they had never imagined possible.
Page 180 Alexie Forrester, at on time engaged to Dian Fossey
“She was extremely lonely up there [in the Virunga Mountains] and very frightened. Despite her bravado things tended to get out of proportion. She had in fact overstepped her environment by a great deal. Most Americans have not much sensitivity for living outside the U.S. Certainly she didn’t have any – she felt Africa was just another Sunset Strip, and she could go around insisting on her rights. It doesn’t work that way.”
This is an excellent biography capturing the complexities of her tragic and fated character.
Dian Fossey in 1966 at the age of 34 decided to uproot her life as an occupational therapist in Kentucky to study and live with the mountain gorillas in the Virunga mountains, first in the Congo and then, when the situation there became too turbulent, she went on the Rwanda side of the Virunga mountains. Sadly, she was murdered in 1985. Nobody knows who did it.
In Kentucky she attended a lecture by Louis Leaky, a world famous paleoanthropologist living in Africa, and convinced him that she wanted to be his latest version of Jane Goodall, the chimpanzee woman, but in Dian Fossey’s case she would be studying gorillas. Leaky was known to choose non-specialists for research – he had done just that very successfully with Jane Goodall.
Even before, Dian Fossey was somewhat of a misfit, being much more comfortable with animals and children than adults. Even though she spent several years in the Congo and Rwanda she only learnt rudimentary Swahili and French. She did not adapt well to the African people and treated them abominably. And she was not that much better with many of her white students who came from England or the U.S. One could easily say that she was not a people person. But at times she could be very gracious like when visiting the U.S. embassy in Kigali, Rwanda.
She treated Virunga National Park in Rwanda as her own personal fiefdom. She would shoot at poachers. She would chase away infringing farmers who were merely looking for more land for their cattle to graze on. In her research she would often be accused of anthropomorphism (giving human traits to animals). As this book was published in 1990 I do not know if that is still a valid criticism in todays' animal research world.
While it is true that Dian Fossey is responsible during her lifetime of saving the mountain gorilla, she was not cognisant of the African continent and the diversity and issues surrounding its people. This ultimately led to her death.
This is an enthralling biography exploring many aspects of the life of this remarkable woman.
June 17, 2023
Very surprised no other reviews mention the gossipy nature of this book or its sexist undertones. One review claims the book gives an unbiased view of Dian Fossey which I find laughable. The author is clearly not a fan of Fossey or her work and essentially credits the men in her life for anything worthwhile that she achieved.
I gave the book two stars because I did learn some things. However, I was left questioning much of the content, wondering if it had been properly researched. The book could have earned more stars had the author left out his judgement and simply reported factual information.
I gave the book two stars because I did learn some things. However, I was left questioning much of the content, wondering if it had been properly researched. The book could have earned more stars had the author left out his judgement and simply reported factual information.
June 14, 2009
The Dark Romance of Dian Fossey is one of the most compelling biographies you're ever likely to read, and one of the oddest. That is undoubtedly because its subject, Dian Fossey, is one of the most enigmatic and least known persons ever to become world famous. Hayes' book pierces through some of the fog that still surrounds Fossey, but in the end she remains a dark figure shrouded in mystery and misunderstanding. Still, Hayes' book comes as close as anything ever written in capturing the real Dian Fossey.
Fossey was an obscure and unknown occupational therapist in her mid thirties when she somehow persuaded renowned anthopologist Louis Leakey to allow her to go to Africa to study the mountain gorilla. For most of the rest of her life she lived in virtual isolation high in the Virunga mountains in Rwanda. In the process, she achieved stunning and unexpected success, becoming the first human ever to be touched by a mountain gorilla, as well as becoming a world famous authority on their behavior. At times she could be charming and sociable, especially when seeking funding for her project.
But there was a darker side. Fossey was a difficult and complex person, who was scarred both by her pre-Africa life and her experiences in Africa. She was briefly taken prisoner during a war in the Congo, and may or may not have been repeatedly raped. Friends and acquaintances were brutally murdered. She never married, had a number of affairs in Africa, and a proclivity for alienating people. By the time she was murdered in Africa, she had earned the hatred of nearly everyone with whom she had come into contact. She drove away most of the students who came to Africa to work with her with her critical and unpleasant personality. The one serious affair she had, with a married photographer sent to photograph her work, resulted in three abortions and a broken heart.
Fossey came to take solace in her beloved mountain gorillas and devoted her life to trying to save them. The mountain gorilla, rarely seen by people, had shrunk to a population of about 300. Whether Fossey's energetic, and at times extreme measures were more harmful than helpful is a controversial issue. While some have argued that her tactics invited reprisals against the gorillas, others argue that without her success in bringing their plight to public attention, they would have already become extinct.
Fossey terrorized and insulted the native Africans, and shot at and tormented poachers. She killed their cattle, briefly kidnapped a child, played on their superstitions, and abused poachers she caught with such tactics as whipping them about their genitals and smearing them with gorilla dung.
Small wonder that when someone broke into her cabin and cut her throat, there was no shortage of suspects. The Rwandan government accused and convicted in absentia one of her research assistants, but few believe he was the actual murderer. Perhaps it was fitting that Dian Fossey died in Africa and was buried nearby some of the gorillas she had loved. And perhaps it is not so odd at all that her death was just as mysterious as the rest of her life.
Fossey's life was poorly documented, which is not so surprising since most of it was lived high on an isolated mountain in the middle of Africa. Her versions of events in her life were often contradictory and sketchy, and often at odds with those of other people. Dian Fossey was indeed a dark figure, shrouded in the mists of a life lived far from the public view. Hayes' book is a fascinating look at her, a real life journey into a heart of darkness.
Fossey was an obscure and unknown occupational therapist in her mid thirties when she somehow persuaded renowned anthopologist Louis Leakey to allow her to go to Africa to study the mountain gorilla. For most of the rest of her life she lived in virtual isolation high in the Virunga mountains in Rwanda. In the process, she achieved stunning and unexpected success, becoming the first human ever to be touched by a mountain gorilla, as well as becoming a world famous authority on their behavior. At times she could be charming and sociable, especially when seeking funding for her project.
But there was a darker side. Fossey was a difficult and complex person, who was scarred both by her pre-Africa life and her experiences in Africa. She was briefly taken prisoner during a war in the Congo, and may or may not have been repeatedly raped. Friends and acquaintances were brutally murdered. She never married, had a number of affairs in Africa, and a proclivity for alienating people. By the time she was murdered in Africa, she had earned the hatred of nearly everyone with whom she had come into contact. She drove away most of the students who came to Africa to work with her with her critical and unpleasant personality. The one serious affair she had, with a married photographer sent to photograph her work, resulted in three abortions and a broken heart.
Fossey came to take solace in her beloved mountain gorillas and devoted her life to trying to save them. The mountain gorilla, rarely seen by people, had shrunk to a population of about 300. Whether Fossey's energetic, and at times extreme measures were more harmful than helpful is a controversial issue. While some have argued that her tactics invited reprisals against the gorillas, others argue that without her success in bringing their plight to public attention, they would have already become extinct.
Fossey terrorized and insulted the native Africans, and shot at and tormented poachers. She killed their cattle, briefly kidnapped a child, played on their superstitions, and abused poachers she caught with such tactics as whipping them about their genitals and smearing them with gorilla dung.
Small wonder that when someone broke into her cabin and cut her throat, there was no shortage of suspects. The Rwandan government accused and convicted in absentia one of her research assistants, but few believe he was the actual murderer. Perhaps it was fitting that Dian Fossey died in Africa and was buried nearby some of the gorillas she had loved. And perhaps it is not so odd at all that her death was just as mysterious as the rest of her life.
Fossey's life was poorly documented, which is not so surprising since most of it was lived high on an isolated mountain in the middle of Africa. Her versions of events in her life were often contradictory and sketchy, and often at odds with those of other people. Dian Fossey was indeed a dark figure, shrouded in the mists of a life lived far from the public view. Hayes' book is a fascinating look at her, a real life journey into a heart of darkness.
March 26, 2011
Bitch be crazy!
November 20, 2013
As a longtime fan of Dian Fossey and the film Gorillas in the Mist, I found Hayes' book to be very informative and well written. I understand her and her work a little better now for reading Hayes' book, as he portrays all aspects of her personality and behavior, even those that may not be flattering. Dian was not perfect, as no human being is, and I liked that the author explored her imperfections as well as her motivations for continuing her research despite objections from nearly everyone around her. I highly recommend this book to fans of Dian's life and work.
June 27, 2018
What I took away from this book is how foolhardy it can be to be a horribly abrasive person when you are the only European in the middle of a war-torn piece of remote jungle. Though well-intentioned, Fossey made enemies of everybody around her through her tactics which included threats of violence, smear campaigns, and acts of terrorism. The poachers hated her, the locals hated her, even other environmentalists hated her. She stomped, she screamed, she alienated. And when it was all done, somebody split her head open with a machete.
January 7, 2025
A painfully objective book almost when you have Fossey, Goodall and Galdikas as heroes. Fossey's legacy is enormous, mountain gorillas are saved for now despite the Karisoke camp is destroeyd. This book opens view to very complicated woman.
February 26, 2023
A FRANK AND REVEALING ACCOUNT OF FOSSEY AND HER WORK
(Harold Hayes’ wife, Judith Kessler Hayes, explained in the Preface to this 1991 book, “Harold Hayes died of a brain tumor on 5 April 1989, only pages away from finishing the book in the way he had planned.”)
The book begins with Fossey’s unsolved murder: “Wayne McGuire, one of Dian Fossey’s student researchers, was tired of it all… Christmas was too big a deal for her… she was hung up on the holiday.” (Pg. 21) “Fossey looked like hell, and with plenty of reasons. Locked up in her cabin all the time, she seldom saw the light of day. And … beyond the boozing, the chronic emphysema stoked by three packs of cigarettes a day… she just didn’t care. She made an effort to pull herself together when guests came up. Otherwise, she didn’t try… Fossey raged and ranted… she shrieked at the cook, making the Africans so nervous they started dropping things. By that time she was screaming and yelling that the dinner was cold.” (Pg. 24) He continues, “At 5:45 the next morning, McGuire was awakened by … Dian’s houseman, shouting outside his door… McGuire covered the path to Fossey’s cabin in minutes. Everything inside the house was a mess… Shattered glass littered the floor. Fossey was lying on her back in bed… her face had been split open. Still frozen in her features was the agony of that moment of death.” (Pg. 25-26)
He notes, “Fossey’s many enemies [included]… Poachers, cattle herders, park officials, Western conservationists, members of her staff, a couple dozen researchers---the parade of possible suspects extended far back into the past… Fossey had shot at her enemies, kidnapped their children, whipped them… killed their cattle, burned their property, and sent them to jail. Anyone who dared to threaten her gorillas, or even to challenge her methods, set her off, and the force of her malevolence was difficult to imagine…. She lived in a setting far removed from legal restraints or police protection. She was easy prey for revenge… it was also an indisputable that Dian Fossey had died for her gorillas.” (Pg. 30)
Going back to the beginning of Fossey’s story, he recounts that former warden John Alexander “was the first person to have anything to do with Dian Fossey in Africa, but he is not pleased with the memory. Rather, Alexander would put himself at the head of any list of the enemies Fossey made over the years.” (Pg. 78-79) He continues, “Fossey’s version of her [first] meeting with [Louis] Leakey is emblematic of the poignant, near-heroic efforts she would later make to reconstruct those parts of her life that were not consistent with her larger vision of herself… In ‘Gorillas in the Mist,’ Fossey’s version of her meeting with Leakey is brief, perfunctory, and vague.” (Pg. 83; 120) “Her engagement to [Michael] Forrester had been postponed twice. She was furious and humiliated.” (Pg. 115)
But her work begins: “[On] her thirty-fifth birthday… she came upon a gorilla… resting on a heavy tree trunk… [to] avoid water and cling to cover---she would never again see such a sight… All doubts vanished. She had told Leakey she would stay here for two years at least, and she would if it killed her. Catching sight of Fossey … the gorilla slipped from the tree and vanished into the forest.” (Pg. 138) Leakey “wanted her to know that he considered the work she was doing absolutely first-rate. He … made it a point to write to her sponsors in the States of her impressive progress. She had… after only a couple of months, compiled two hundred types pages of field notes, covering more than a hundred hours of contact with the gorillas.” (Pg. 158) He told her parents, “What she is doing is comparable to what has been done by Jane Goodall with the chimpanzees… and I assure you that Dian will have equal fame and success.” (Pg. 201)
He notes, “Between 18 June … and the 18th, her dark gray mood had turned black. She described the Africans as ‘thugs,’ and… as ‘apes.’ She was no convinced that they had come to view her as fair game… A defenseless woman. They could therefore bully her with impunity… No matter that she couldn’t speak their language. Now she no longer tried. She didn’t speak to the Africans at all.” (Pg. 162) The civil war in the Congo also intervened, and “Fossey was under detention in the Congo for sixteen days… She told Leakey bluntly she was very disappointed in his failure to send someone to help her out… Fossey suffered all the emotional trauma of rape but may have managed to escape a physical sexual assault by defying her tormentors with the force of her rage… She had been the last white to get out of the eastern Congo alive… ‘She knew very well that the second anybody suspected what she had been through, she would have been sent straight home… She wasn’t about to let that happen.” (Pg. 171-176)
A National Geographic photographer, Robert (‘Bob’) Campbell joins her. “there was nothing very remarkable about him, certainly nothing that would indicate he would one day become the most important man in her life.” [They had an affair, though Campbell was married; she had two abortions, but never told him. (Pg. 248, 279) “She was in love with Campbell. She was his. The problem was, he was not hers.” (Pg. 216, 277) “Dian made no mention of her father’s suicide… whatever her feelings… she kept them to herself.” (Pg. 220) One observer commented, “from these unhappy circumstances she DID change: she began to distrust those who were the most eager to help her.” (Pg. 223) Leakey’s secretary told him, “Dian is having a mental breakdown… She has alienated the Africans, the park rangers, and a couple of Rwandan officials, and she is smartass and hostile with them.” (Pg. 238)
But her work progressed: “she was approached by a young Blackhawk she had named Peanuts… tentatively, Peanuts reached out and … touched her hand! Campbell started shooting… the animal touched her again… rose … pounded his chest, and returned to the group. Dian Fossey had been touched by a mountain gorilla!... It was … something she had hoped for since she first arrived in Africa.” (Pg. 245) Hayes reports, “Campbell captured rare moments on film… stunning footage of spectacular footage of spectacular wild animals the world had never seen up close.” (Pg. 268)
Hayes notes, “The only person she trusted to save the gorilla was herself. So she turned to the gun and ignited a war every bit as dangerous as the one she had fled in the Congo.” (Pg. 252) Six gorillas were killed by the poachers “in retaliation for … shooting one of the poachers in the back.” (Pg. 257-258)
He reports, “according to Kelly Stewart, a researcher at Karisoke at the time, by the spring of 1974 [Fossey] was drinking a case of whiskey a week. Stewart believes that Campbell’s departure and her two abortions broke her spirit completely.” (Pg. 292) He continues, “in her years in the Congo and Rwanda, through the brutalities she endured, and the isolation she imposed on herself, the mistrust of people grew until it assumed pathological proportions.” (Pg. 301) “Fossey looked on the students … as just a notch above the Africans… After Campbell left, there was not satisfying her. Nothing was good enough… She fired more than a few of her students, including some of the best she ever had.” (Pg. 303)
Still, “Fossey not longer treated the gorillas as subjects of study. ‘She treated them as friends… She played with them… almost treated them as pets… she became extremely personally involved with some of them… The difficulty with this is that her personal likes and dislikes affected her interpretation of their behavior.’ … By this time it was clear to many people that Fossey’s feelings toward the gorillas had gone far beyond professional dedication to their survival. The preservation of the gorillas had become her obsession…” (Pg. 316, 319) “She allowed herself to become a celebrity because she realized that world-wide attention was necessary to keep the remaining gorillas alive… By May, her behavior had become so outrageous that the Rwandan government fined her $600 for torturing a suspect…” (Pg. 326) She said, “I don’t have any family. Those gorillas are my family, and that hut is my home,.” (Pg. 332) Finally, she wrote her book.
This book will be “must reading” for anyone seriously studying Fossey, and her work.
(Harold Hayes’ wife, Judith Kessler Hayes, explained in the Preface to this 1991 book, “Harold Hayes died of a brain tumor on 5 April 1989, only pages away from finishing the book in the way he had planned.”)
The book begins with Fossey’s unsolved murder: “Wayne McGuire, one of Dian Fossey’s student researchers, was tired of it all… Christmas was too big a deal for her… she was hung up on the holiday.” (Pg. 21) “Fossey looked like hell, and with plenty of reasons. Locked up in her cabin all the time, she seldom saw the light of day. And … beyond the boozing, the chronic emphysema stoked by three packs of cigarettes a day… she just didn’t care. She made an effort to pull herself together when guests came up. Otherwise, she didn’t try… Fossey raged and ranted… she shrieked at the cook, making the Africans so nervous they started dropping things. By that time she was screaming and yelling that the dinner was cold.” (Pg. 24) He continues, “At 5:45 the next morning, McGuire was awakened by … Dian’s houseman, shouting outside his door… McGuire covered the path to Fossey’s cabin in minutes. Everything inside the house was a mess… Shattered glass littered the floor. Fossey was lying on her back in bed… her face had been split open. Still frozen in her features was the agony of that moment of death.” (Pg. 25-26)
He notes, “Fossey’s many enemies [included]… Poachers, cattle herders, park officials, Western conservationists, members of her staff, a couple dozen researchers---the parade of possible suspects extended far back into the past… Fossey had shot at her enemies, kidnapped their children, whipped them… killed their cattle, burned their property, and sent them to jail. Anyone who dared to threaten her gorillas, or even to challenge her methods, set her off, and the force of her malevolence was difficult to imagine…. She lived in a setting far removed from legal restraints or police protection. She was easy prey for revenge… it was also an indisputable that Dian Fossey had died for her gorillas.” (Pg. 30)
Going back to the beginning of Fossey’s story, he recounts that former warden John Alexander “was the first person to have anything to do with Dian Fossey in Africa, but he is not pleased with the memory. Rather, Alexander would put himself at the head of any list of the enemies Fossey made over the years.” (Pg. 78-79) He continues, “Fossey’s version of her [first] meeting with [Louis] Leakey is emblematic of the poignant, near-heroic efforts she would later make to reconstruct those parts of her life that were not consistent with her larger vision of herself… In ‘Gorillas in the Mist,’ Fossey’s version of her meeting with Leakey is brief, perfunctory, and vague.” (Pg. 83; 120) “Her engagement to [Michael] Forrester had been postponed twice. She was furious and humiliated.” (Pg. 115)
But her work begins: “[On] her thirty-fifth birthday… she came upon a gorilla… resting on a heavy tree trunk… [to] avoid water and cling to cover---she would never again see such a sight… All doubts vanished. She had told Leakey she would stay here for two years at least, and she would if it killed her. Catching sight of Fossey … the gorilla slipped from the tree and vanished into the forest.” (Pg. 138) Leakey “wanted her to know that he considered the work she was doing absolutely first-rate. He … made it a point to write to her sponsors in the States of her impressive progress. She had… after only a couple of months, compiled two hundred types pages of field notes, covering more than a hundred hours of contact with the gorillas.” (Pg. 158) He told her parents, “What she is doing is comparable to what has been done by Jane Goodall with the chimpanzees… and I assure you that Dian will have equal fame and success.” (Pg. 201)
He notes, “Between 18 June … and the 18th, her dark gray mood had turned black. She described the Africans as ‘thugs,’ and… as ‘apes.’ She was no convinced that they had come to view her as fair game… A defenseless woman. They could therefore bully her with impunity… No matter that she couldn’t speak their language. Now she no longer tried. She didn’t speak to the Africans at all.” (Pg. 162) The civil war in the Congo also intervened, and “Fossey was under detention in the Congo for sixteen days… She told Leakey bluntly she was very disappointed in his failure to send someone to help her out… Fossey suffered all the emotional trauma of rape but may have managed to escape a physical sexual assault by defying her tormentors with the force of her rage… She had been the last white to get out of the eastern Congo alive… ‘She knew very well that the second anybody suspected what she had been through, she would have been sent straight home… She wasn’t about to let that happen.” (Pg. 171-176)
A National Geographic photographer, Robert (‘Bob’) Campbell joins her. “there was nothing very remarkable about him, certainly nothing that would indicate he would one day become the most important man in her life.” [They had an affair, though Campbell was married; she had two abortions, but never told him. (Pg. 248, 279) “She was in love with Campbell. She was his. The problem was, he was not hers.” (Pg. 216, 277) “Dian made no mention of her father’s suicide… whatever her feelings… she kept them to herself.” (Pg. 220) One observer commented, “from these unhappy circumstances she DID change: she began to distrust those who were the most eager to help her.” (Pg. 223) Leakey’s secretary told him, “Dian is having a mental breakdown… She has alienated the Africans, the park rangers, and a couple of Rwandan officials, and she is smartass and hostile with them.” (Pg. 238)
But her work progressed: “she was approached by a young Blackhawk she had named Peanuts… tentatively, Peanuts reached out and … touched her hand! Campbell started shooting… the animal touched her again… rose … pounded his chest, and returned to the group. Dian Fossey had been touched by a mountain gorilla!... It was … something she had hoped for since she first arrived in Africa.” (Pg. 245) Hayes reports, “Campbell captured rare moments on film… stunning footage of spectacular footage of spectacular wild animals the world had never seen up close.” (Pg. 268)
Hayes notes, “The only person she trusted to save the gorilla was herself. So she turned to the gun and ignited a war every bit as dangerous as the one she had fled in the Congo.” (Pg. 252) Six gorillas were killed by the poachers “in retaliation for … shooting one of the poachers in the back.” (Pg. 257-258)
He reports, “according to Kelly Stewart, a researcher at Karisoke at the time, by the spring of 1974 [Fossey] was drinking a case of whiskey a week. Stewart believes that Campbell’s departure and her two abortions broke her spirit completely.” (Pg. 292) He continues, “in her years in the Congo and Rwanda, through the brutalities she endured, and the isolation she imposed on herself, the mistrust of people grew until it assumed pathological proportions.” (Pg. 301) “Fossey looked on the students … as just a notch above the Africans… After Campbell left, there was not satisfying her. Nothing was good enough… She fired more than a few of her students, including some of the best she ever had.” (Pg. 303)
Still, “Fossey not longer treated the gorillas as subjects of study. ‘She treated them as friends… She played with them… almost treated them as pets… she became extremely personally involved with some of them… The difficulty with this is that her personal likes and dislikes affected her interpretation of their behavior.’ … By this time it was clear to many people that Fossey’s feelings toward the gorillas had gone far beyond professional dedication to their survival. The preservation of the gorillas had become her obsession…” (Pg. 316, 319) “She allowed herself to become a celebrity because she realized that world-wide attention was necessary to keep the remaining gorillas alive… By May, her behavior had become so outrageous that the Rwandan government fined her $600 for torturing a suspect…” (Pg. 326) She said, “I don’t have any family. Those gorillas are my family, and that hut is my home,.” (Pg. 332) Finally, she wrote her book.
This book will be “must reading” for anyone seriously studying Fossey, and her work.
June 18, 2012
I was very keen to read something about Dian Fossey for my upcoming adventure to Rwanda and settled on this book - I'm glad I did - I got an unbiased glimpse into the life of a woman that everyone knows and nobody knows. I'm of the opinion she did more harm than good for the silverback gorilla's but I'm open to having that change once I see the area for myself and perhaps learn more during my visit with the gorilla's. I would recommend this book for anyone very interested in learning more about Dian Fossey - don't expect to learn that much about silverback gorilla's though.
May 12, 2019
Schreckliches Buch. Stellt Dian Fossey als eine grausame, einsame Frau dar. Sie war zwar nicht die leichtumgänglichste, jedoch beschreibt dieses Buch eher ihr Privatleben (welches durch pikante Details "schmackhaft" gemacht werden sollte). Jedoch darf man nicht außer Acht lassen, dass sich Hayes viel Mühe gab um dieses Buch zu schreiben (z.B.: Interviews). Leider muss man auch sagen, er selbst hat sich nie ein eigenes Bild von Dian Fossey machen können, wie die anderen Personen die sie persönlich kannten, weshalb sein Bild von ihr nur auf Berichten und Erzählungen anderer aufgebaut ist.
August 27, 2008
I was an anthropology/archaeology major in school, so we read many books over the years about dian fossey and her quest to save gorillas in africa. It's almost tragic how she became disenchanted with reality and would go for 10 months straight without any human contact, while living among the gorillas.
June 12, 2010
Good portrayal of the grim life of Dian Fossey - isolated, mistrustful and obsessed with protecting her gorilla family.
April 29, 2020
Farley Mowat wrote a much better book on Dian Fossey. Hayes adds to it, but if you are going to read just one, be sure to check Mowat out - A Woman in the Mists.
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August 7, 2021She fascinated me and I remember reading this, but wish I remembered my impression of it better. Can not rate it.
August 5, 2018
Really fascinating book giving a play by play of Dian Fossey’s life. It shares a much more honest look at her pulling from a ton of sources who knew her personally. Really well researched but still engaging and enjoyable. I would note that it’s really about HER, this isn’t the book to read if you’re looking for something all about gorillas or her practices with them - more the events surrounding her time there.
February 13, 2023
Rwanda - Round the World reading challenge
January 11, 2016
A fascinating and complex examination and portrayal of a fascinating and complex woman.
Hayes does a magnificent job of peeling away the layers and laying out different sources so the reader can come to an understanding on their own. Ms. Fossey made the job incredibly difficult - telling different people different versions of the same events - and Hayes really does a spectacular investigation to help us understand this vital and tremendously complex woman. Kudos, Mr. Hayes.
Hayes does a magnificent job of peeling away the layers and laying out different sources so the reader can come to an understanding on their own. Ms. Fossey made the job incredibly difficult - telling different people different versions of the same events - and Hayes really does a spectacular investigation to help us understand this vital and tremendously complex woman. Kudos, Mr. Hayes.
February 10, 2020
Traces the remarkable life of the controversial primatologist, detailing her relationship with Louis Leakey, her stormy experiences in defending the gorillas she studied, and the circumstances surrounding her brutal, still unsolved murder. Hayes interviewed many who knew or worked with Fossey before she began her work in Africa and after she became established as a primatologist. The paperback edition includes photographs.
January 12, 2009
entertainingly written, interesting, and i'm learning a lot. i wish i could have been one of louis leaky's "ape girls"- in an alternate life.
the book was set up kind of like a backwards murder mystery, which was cool, but have changed my mind about a career in primatology!
the book was set up kind of like a backwards murder mystery, which was cool, but have changed my mind about a career in primatology!
December 26, 2015
What wasted life ,war ,poverty ,and birthrates have undone all her meddling. Fossey and her kind are neocolonialist the great white environmentalist come to save earth. Meanwhile the local people don't even have clean water to drink.
December 8, 2016
Very well-written book about a fascinating woman who I knew hardly anything about. And of course, personally interesting to me were the excerpts about National Geographic's role in her project.
Now I can't wait to go and see the mountain gorillas for myself one day!
Now I can't wait to go and see the mountain gorillas for myself one day!
February 22, 2009
A fascinating look at Diane Fossey and the gorillas she tried so hard to protect.
June 18, 2010
A compelling read. Dian Fossey's determination to protect the gorillas created a dark and ugly, at times, tale of compassion and fury.
May 1, 2013
This is what Gorillas in the Mist should have been. A truthful accounting of Goodall's life. Much more interesting. A good companion to her book.
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