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Virunga: Passion Dian Fossey
On December 28, 1985 after eighteen years of research in the dripping rain forests of the Virunga volcanoes in central Africa, Dian Fossey was brutally murdered. Though not quite fifty-four years old, she had lived a life as remarkable and rewarding as that of any woman of our time.
Dian Fossey went to Africa at the urging of famed anthropologist Dr. Louis Leakey to study one of the rarest, most mysterious animals on the wild mountain gorilla. She found the great, gentle apes threatened on all sides by zoo collectors, poachers, herdsmen and scientists. Slowly, she came to understand the magnificent creatures on their own terms, to understand and admire--even to love them. She became their greatest champion--and their greatest martyr.
Virunga is the startling true account of Dian Fossey's life as told by Canada's favorite wildlife writer, Farley Mowat. Based on Fossey's private correspondence, journals, camp records, personal papers and interviews with her colleagues, friends and enemies, it is the story of one woman's inexhaustible passion for life--and the creatures who share it with us.
From the Paperback edition.
Dian Fossey went to Africa at the urging of famed anthropologist Dr. Louis Leakey to study one of the rarest, most mysterious animals on the wild mountain gorilla. She found the great, gentle apes threatened on all sides by zoo collectors, poachers, herdsmen and scientists. Slowly, she came to understand the magnificent creatures on their own terms, to understand and admire--even to love them. She became their greatest champion--and their greatest martyr.
Virunga is the startling true account of Dian Fossey's life as told by Canada's favorite wildlife writer, Farley Mowat. Based on Fossey's private correspondence, journals, camp records, personal papers and interviews with her colleagues, friends and enemies, it is the story of one woman's inexhaustible passion for life--and the creatures who share it with us.
From the Paperback edition.
380 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1987
36 people are currently reading
3157 people want to read
About the author
Farley Mowat
118 books649 followersFarley McGill Mowat was a conservationist and one of Canada's most widely-read authors.
Many of his most popular works have been memoirs of his childhood, his war service, and his work as a naturalist. His works have been translated into 52 languages and he has sold more than 14 million books.
Mowat studied biology at the University of Toronto. During a field trip to the Arctic, Mowat became outraged at the plight of the Ihalmiut, a Caribou Inuit band, which he attributed to misunderstanding by whites. His outrage led him to publish his first novel, People of the Deer (1952). This book made Mowat into a literary celebrity and was largely responsible for the shift in the Canadian government's Inuit policy: the government began shipping meat and dry goods to a people they previously denied existed.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship RV Farley Mowat was named in honour of him, and he frequently visited it to assist its mission.
Many of his most popular works have been memoirs of his childhood, his war service, and his work as a naturalist. His works have been translated into 52 languages and he has sold more than 14 million books.
Mowat studied biology at the University of Toronto. During a field trip to the Arctic, Mowat became outraged at the plight of the Ihalmiut, a Caribou Inuit band, which he attributed to misunderstanding by whites. His outrage led him to publish his first novel, People of the Deer (1952). This book made Mowat into a literary celebrity and was largely responsible for the shift in the Canadian government's Inuit policy: the government began shipping meat and dry goods to a people they previously denied existed.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship RV Farley Mowat was named in honour of him, and he frequently visited it to assist its mission.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 94 reviews
October 31, 2020
A heartwarming, yet somber look at one woman's plight to save the mountain gorillas. I thought the movie was pretty good too!
March 14, 2021
The truth is that I am much more interested in the great apes than I am in Dian Fossey although one is not discussed without the other. There is very little in this book about the animals themselves. The politics and bureaucracy involved in researching and protecting the mountain gorilla is unbelievably tangled and farcical, all in the name of the ever mighty dollar and ego. Dian’s legacy is that she had the endurance and personality to fight every battle by using whatever support she could find. I can’t imagine that her resources, strength, and health would have allowed her to last much longer at KRC - she died fighting, which seems just right.
July 15, 2012
This was a library book I checked out on one of my visits where I randomly walk through the nonfiction section and and wait for a book to jump out at me. It was hard to resist the combination of its author, Farley Mowat, a biography about an independent woman, animals and my unwavering curiosity about all things Africa.
Dian Fossey was, if nothing else, an interesting woman to read about for her strength and ability to go after what she wanted. Whether it was career, men, financial backing or political tanglements, her life was colored with adventure and controversy. I've never read her book "Gorillas in the Mist" but I consider this the backstory in a sense. This book drops you into her life during the time leading to setting up camp in the high mountains of Rwanda, and gives the reader the situations, trials, successes and utter failures she had while studying gorillas and writing her book. How the book came to be and her struggle to get it completed is a story in itself.
What you learn about more than her actual interactions with the gorillas (although there is some of that) is that her passion for her work and convictions were unwavering. She fought poachers and all others who threatened the lives of the gorillas she dearly loved. She wasn't always right and she wasn't always nice. She lived many years in poor health, lost at love, compromised friendships, and made some bad decisions that cost her dearly. But she also was generous, loving and wise.
It was interesting to think that she was forced out of her camp in the congo due to political unrest and was able to cross the border into Rwanda and continue her work on the Rwandan side of the Virungas. At the time Rwanda was peaceful. However, her death in 1985's and was only a few years before Rwanda's economy fell apart and the terrible genocide began.
From what I can find online, Dian's legacy is long and her conservation program continues. Thankfully, this courageous woman didn't die in vain.
Dian Fossey was, if nothing else, an interesting woman to read about for her strength and ability to go after what she wanted. Whether it was career, men, financial backing or political tanglements, her life was colored with adventure and controversy. I've never read her book "Gorillas in the Mist" but I consider this the backstory in a sense. This book drops you into her life during the time leading to setting up camp in the high mountains of Rwanda, and gives the reader the situations, trials, successes and utter failures she had while studying gorillas and writing her book. How the book came to be and her struggle to get it completed is a story in itself.
What you learn about more than her actual interactions with the gorillas (although there is some of that) is that her passion for her work and convictions were unwavering. She fought poachers and all others who threatened the lives of the gorillas she dearly loved. She wasn't always right and she wasn't always nice. She lived many years in poor health, lost at love, compromised friendships, and made some bad decisions that cost her dearly. But she also was generous, loving and wise.
It was interesting to think that she was forced out of her camp in the congo due to political unrest and was able to cross the border into Rwanda and continue her work on the Rwandan side of the Virungas. At the time Rwanda was peaceful. However, her death in 1985's and was only a few years before Rwanda's economy fell apart and the terrible genocide began.
From what I can find online, Dian's legacy is long and her conservation program continues. Thankfully, this courageous woman didn't die in vain.
July 9, 2010
A biography of Diane Fossey, the scientist famous for her conservation work protecting the mountain gorillas of Africa. This was a very good biography. It really made me think about the issues of women in science. Diane was a forthright woman and consequently had trouble with men she had to relate too in a professional manner. She also had trouble with men on a personal front as she refused to give up her work to go live with them and do housework and they all eventually left her. A troubling revelation on the societal front was that most money given in the name of Digit and the other mountain gorillas never made its way to effective conservation efforts, instead it lined the pockets of park directors and other elites. It made me think about how charity is really a large business. It also made me think about corruption and how it is that government and other agencies can do so little with so much money.
March 13, 2020
No doubt Dian was a complicated person. She was opinionated,difficult, stubborn, and held grudges. She smoked too much, drank too much and slept around regardless of marital status. I can't help but wonder how people might have viewed her differently if she has been a man, She also pretty much single handedly brought the plight of the Mountain Gorilla to the world's consciousness and heightened awareness of poaching, habitat encroachment and possibly helped save the species from extinction. Mowat is apologetically pro- Fossey, so I think there may have been another side to the difficulties Fossey struggled with, but even with a biased story, I very much enjoyed reading about this passionate woman.
February 5, 2023
This excellent narrative, or biography or autobiography or celebration of life or whatever you may choose to call it, was written two years after Fossey's murder in 1985. She died in Rwanda in her cabin of twenty years in the mountainous rainforests in Volcanoes National Park. Her wound was a single machete blow to the head. Many valuables, including money, were left untouched in her cabin. While her murder is not the focus of the book, one did gain an understanding of why so many people would have wanted her out of the picture. She was incorruptible and there was a lot of money in gorilla tourism and poaching, but of which caused deaths to the endangered gorillas. Human tourists bring hookworm which is quite deadly to gorillas and poachers kill gorillas to extract live baby gorillas and sell to zoos.
Initially it was believed that Fossey died at the hands of poachers who she routinely had rounded up and interrogated. But the Rwandan government some ten years later said it was a camp worker who was bribed at the behest of a local official.
Now I had previously read Gorillas in the Mist. While I mostly liked it l, the writing is okay and Fossey intentionally excluded writing about people as much as possible. This book is simply better because a) Mowat was such an gifted writer and b) the narrative largely focused on the people. The gorillas are still an obvious fabric to the story but not the only thread. Fossey had many health issues including tuberculosis and emphysema. Towards the end of her life she had to occasionally be carried up the mountain on a litter.
Fossey also kept a daily diary and was a prodigious note taker. So there is a lot of material in Fossey's own words as to what she thought of everybody. Farley didn't need to embellish anything because Diane Fossey's life was so remarkable and her notes clear.
5 stars. Highly recommended.
October 23, 2009
I was totally consumed by this book. Farley Mowat's passion and affection Dian Fossey is clear (and stated in the introduction) but using her own words from her diaries he shows us a damaged, flawed, almost hard to like person. I couldn't help liking her and being impressed by her, through her closed minded hypocrisy, her heavy drinking, her obsessions with older married men and so on. The passion that burned her up was what drove her to do amazing work. And I'm super excited to be seeing the land she lived in and the gorillas she loved (though she'd hate me doing it) in about six months.
February 4, 2017
What a fascinating book and what a life. I have been utterly engrossed with this book, and at various points I've been charmed, furious and heartbroken. Many, many years ago (probably more than I want to admit) I remember watching the Sigourney Weaver film Gorillas in the Mist. I was a child at the time so I don't remember much in detail. No doubt the film didn't cover as much as this well-written book, but even so I have learned a lot about her life and also about decades of gorilla conservation in Rwanda. It's interestingly told, through a lot of research on Mowat's part, told through his own voice and also from many, many excerpts of Dian's own journal entries and letters. There are certain parties that do not come across very well in this story. Aware that there are always two sides to every story, I am curious in a way to know what Harcourt, Kelly, and that V-B couple would have to say about the events. I doubt they were blameless, but whether they were as dreadful as Dian believed is hard to tell. Their opinions don't really feature in this book apart from two quotes right at the end, one from Kelly and one from the guy of the V-B couple, and they both essentially say that Dian got what was coming to her, was a crap scientist and it was utterley her own fault that she was butchered up in the mountains of Rwanda. Hardly an expert though I am, I am disinclined to agree and go more with Mowat's feelings that it was all tied in with the fact that she was a thorn in any mass tourism venture getting going, and that she had just been granted a two year visa (before then she had to fight for every visa and only got a couple of months at a time). Also I wonder about the fact that some of the recent natural-death gorilla autopsies were showing up hookworm, a parasite that the gorillas were picking up from the influx of tourists. It seemed that other parties wanted to hush hush this all up.
Dian Fossey was an American, who had no formal academic background to do a scientific study on gorillas in advance - a fact that seemed to have given other academics fuel to automatically look down their noses at her. She had worked with disabled children, and taken out a loan in her early thirties to go to Africa for a few weeks to travel around. During this time she first met Dr Leaky, who got her into the mountain gorillas and helped sort out the funding so she could start a study up in the mountains. She started off in the Congo but when the political situation fell apart she went across into Rwanda and set up her base Karisoke, in the mountains. She and a long line of uni students from all over the world studied the various gorilla groups in the area and to a greater or lesser extent fought back against the poachers. Dian also did her university studies and got her doctorate, did lecture tours and wrote books, but many never seemed to take her seriously. She ended up murdered by a machete whack that split her skull, and I'm not sure if they ever figured out who had killed her. Certainly not when this book went to print.
Dian was a fascinating woman. I was inspired by the fact that she didn't start on this life's work until she was in her mid thirties. I hear foolish things about if you've not started on your path in your twenties, it isn't going to happen. Not that thirty is old, but it is good to hear these stories of you're never too old. She wasn't a people person, and really I think part of what the problems stemmed from is that she wanted to be up in those mountains with her gorillas, isolated and alone. She didn't want to share. And as more academics, and to be blunt, some really bad egomaniacs got involved, everyone wanted to put their stamp on it. And she didn't want to share, so she turned into this mad, crotcherty old woman who rubbed most people up the wrong way. No one is perfect, and I think she did have the best of intentions at heart. She certainly put conservation ahead of data collection, and really fought against the poachers... going too far really by retaliating and burning the poacher's posessions. Me I'd be wondering about re-education and trying to get everyone to appreciate it's better to have the gorillas alive, but I'm an idealist sitting in my armchair in the UK. She really stuck it out there despite her dreadful health, the real hate and lies that were spread about her, and the attitude problems of some of these egotistical young students that came to study. And they were so certain they'd do a better job of looking after the site than she would, yet when Harcourt and Kelly took over for a year or two whilst Dian was in America, the poacher patrols essentially stopped, the camp fell into disrepair and most of the camp tools and supplies were stolen.
I can relate to Dian's need to get away from people and to the mountains. There are days when I could happily move to a little island and have nothing more to do with the human race. But here is a story that shows you can never escape office politics and back stabbing. Even stuck up a mountain in Rwanda, with only a few students coming and going, there are politics and bitching, egos that want to be fed... I also found the details of all the fundraising interesting and depressing. Dian set up the Digit fund to pay for the poacher patrols. But this got jumbled up with Harcourt's Mountain Gorilla Fund which was all about the tourism. People were donating masses of money, thinking it was going to help Dian's work, but she never saw a penny of it and it all went to Harcourt. It makes you think that when you give these donations, a lot of the time you never really know where the money is going, and if it will do any good.
And the gorillas. They were charming. We get to know the different gorilla family groups, and from time, patience, and experience of working with problem children, Dian gets a dialogue of sorts going with the Gorillas, who actually accept her as this odd creatures bimbling around in the jungle and appearing now and then. When she's been away in America for a year or two, and then comes back, it's so wonderful to see the gorillas do a double take when they see her, and then delightedly come and sit with her and pet her. They remember her and are pleased to see her. Digit, who was one of her favourites, she first 'met' when he was just a fluffy ball, and saw him grow up. So sweet when she was sat a bit away in the rain observing the family group, and Digit came to sit with her. She was devastated when he was butchered by poachers, his head and hands taken to sell to the tourists. It was so sad to read. In fact, the western world has a lot to be accountable for here. If the tourists and zoos weren't after these things, would the poachers even bother with the gorillas? Early on Dian has to look after two young gorillas whose entire family group was butchered (this happened when the poachers wanted to kidnap the babies)... because a zoo in Cologne had said they wanted gorillas in their collection. It's just disgusting. How is this conservation? And the Spanish come out as a particularly malignant zoo organisation, getting snotty and demanding to be allowed all over the mountains to learn about the gorillas (ie how to deal with them when they get them into their zoo).
Pretty big mix of emotions in this book, and a lot of issues to take in. It's a few years old now, Dian Fossey being murdered at the end of 1985, but I don't suppose all these problems have magically gone away since then.
Dian Fossey was an American, who had no formal academic background to do a scientific study on gorillas in advance - a fact that seemed to have given other academics fuel to automatically look down their noses at her. She had worked with disabled children, and taken out a loan in her early thirties to go to Africa for a few weeks to travel around. During this time she first met Dr Leaky, who got her into the mountain gorillas and helped sort out the funding so she could start a study up in the mountains. She started off in the Congo but when the political situation fell apart she went across into Rwanda and set up her base Karisoke, in the mountains. She and a long line of uni students from all over the world studied the various gorilla groups in the area and to a greater or lesser extent fought back against the poachers. Dian also did her university studies and got her doctorate, did lecture tours and wrote books, but many never seemed to take her seriously. She ended up murdered by a machete whack that split her skull, and I'm not sure if they ever figured out who had killed her. Certainly not when this book went to print.
Dian was a fascinating woman. I was inspired by the fact that she didn't start on this life's work until she was in her mid thirties. I hear foolish things about if you've not started on your path in your twenties, it isn't going to happen. Not that thirty is old, but it is good to hear these stories of you're never too old. She wasn't a people person, and really I think part of what the problems stemmed from is that she wanted to be up in those mountains with her gorillas, isolated and alone. She didn't want to share. And as more academics, and to be blunt, some really bad egomaniacs got involved, everyone wanted to put their stamp on it. And she didn't want to share, so she turned into this mad, crotcherty old woman who rubbed most people up the wrong way. No one is perfect, and I think she did have the best of intentions at heart. She certainly put conservation ahead of data collection, and really fought against the poachers... going too far really by retaliating and burning the poacher's posessions. Me I'd be wondering about re-education and trying to get everyone to appreciate it's better to have the gorillas alive, but I'm an idealist sitting in my armchair in the UK. She really stuck it out there despite her dreadful health, the real hate and lies that were spread about her, and the attitude problems of some of these egotistical young students that came to study. And they were so certain they'd do a better job of looking after the site than she would, yet when Harcourt and Kelly took over for a year or two whilst Dian was in America, the poacher patrols essentially stopped, the camp fell into disrepair and most of the camp tools and supplies were stolen.
I can relate to Dian's need to get away from people and to the mountains. There are days when I could happily move to a little island and have nothing more to do with the human race. But here is a story that shows you can never escape office politics and back stabbing. Even stuck up a mountain in Rwanda, with only a few students coming and going, there are politics and bitching, egos that want to be fed... I also found the details of all the fundraising interesting and depressing. Dian set up the Digit fund to pay for the poacher patrols. But this got jumbled up with Harcourt's Mountain Gorilla Fund which was all about the tourism. People were donating masses of money, thinking it was going to help Dian's work, but she never saw a penny of it and it all went to Harcourt. It makes you think that when you give these donations, a lot of the time you never really know where the money is going, and if it will do any good.
And the gorillas. They were charming. We get to know the different gorilla family groups, and from time, patience, and experience of working with problem children, Dian gets a dialogue of sorts going with the Gorillas, who actually accept her as this odd creatures bimbling around in the jungle and appearing now and then. When she's been away in America for a year or two, and then comes back, it's so wonderful to see the gorillas do a double take when they see her, and then delightedly come and sit with her and pet her. They remember her and are pleased to see her. Digit, who was one of her favourites, she first 'met' when he was just a fluffy ball, and saw him grow up. So sweet when she was sat a bit away in the rain observing the family group, and Digit came to sit with her. She was devastated when he was butchered by poachers, his head and hands taken to sell to the tourists. It was so sad to read. In fact, the western world has a lot to be accountable for here. If the tourists and zoos weren't after these things, would the poachers even bother with the gorillas? Early on Dian has to look after two young gorillas whose entire family group was butchered (this happened when the poachers wanted to kidnap the babies)... because a zoo in Cologne had said they wanted gorillas in their collection. It's just disgusting. How is this conservation? And the Spanish come out as a particularly malignant zoo organisation, getting snotty and demanding to be allowed all over the mountains to learn about the gorillas (ie how to deal with them when they get them into their zoo).
Pretty big mix of emotions in this book, and a lot of issues to take in. It's a few years old now, Dian Fossey being murdered at the end of 1985, but I don't suppose all these problems have magically gone away since then.
August 24, 2022
i have so many thoughts about this book. i was expecting a book similar to sapolsky’s memoir but MAN was i WRONG! first of all, it’s not an autobiography, but has extensive portions of her journals and passages from her OWN book. i suppose if i wanted to hear more about gorillas than dian i should have read that one instead, but once i was engaged in this one i wanted to hear it out. if this was fiction, it would have upset me, mostly because some of it was so unbelievable! but it was real, so i can’t fault that! like, if dian was a fictional character i would hate her. cannot believe she lived long enough to get murdered with her excessive and persistent health problems (amidst love affair after affair after affair?? crazy!) but since she IS real, i find it hard not to sympathize with her. she had equally as many admirers as she had ardent haters and that is kind of baller. also her headstrong passion for these gorillas, her devotion to her work, and her hands-on anti-poaching conservation approach is very baller. four stars because i enjoyed it and i learned a lot, but four stars because there was a lot of boring administrative conflict and it was all kind of a piece of work.
“WHEN YOU REALIZE THE VALUE OF ALL LIFE, YOU DWELL LESS ON WHAT IS PAST AND CONCENTRATE MORE ON THE PRESERVATION OF THE FUTURE.” -DIAN FOSSEY (LONE WOMAN OF THE FOREST)
“WHEN YOU REALIZE THE VALUE OF ALL LIFE, YOU DWELL LESS ON WHAT IS PAST AND CONCENTRATE MORE ON THE PRESERVATION OF THE FUTURE.” -DIAN FOSSEY (LONE WOMAN OF THE FOREST)
September 12, 2023
This book did take me over a month to finish, but it is a solid 3.5 to me.
The insane specifics in political scenarios and personal feuds made some of this book drag on for me, but that can also be attributed to an incredibly well-detailed biography. Based on the author's intro and ending, I know that Mowat aimed to cover Dian Fossey's life in conservation through her personal journal entries and other first-hand accounts. This book did just that. I am impressed with that level of dedication in an author, and there were many times that I questioned how it was possible to recount certain events as precisely as this book did. Saying this, I still caught myself losing interest with that writing style, and needed to pay close attention to follow the way it was written. How. ever. Above all my reader's-preference complaining, I need to emphasize how insane Dian Fossey's life was.
I rarely annotate books in the way I annotated this one. I wasn't expecting so many love affairs and serious drama! She also went through such a physical beating with her constant sicknesses, broken bones, and medical emergencies throughout this book. I genuinely couldn't believe that this many near-death experiences and injuries were possible in a human life. And that's not even including the most life-threatening experiences that consistently arose from poachers during the time that she worked at the Karisoke Research Center. She genuinely never caught a break with tourist-driven individuals, organizations, and government officials who despised her conservation efforts at Karisoke. The events leading up to her murder really prove that, as well.
To wrap everything up here about my thoughts on this book, I'm honestly glad that I've read it. Before picking it up, I hate to admit that I had no idea who Dian Fossey was. This author covered her incredible life in a way that could not be replicated by anybody else, and in such detail that I cannot even be upset about the length of time it took for me to finish it.
(Side note: after reading about Dian's emotional intensity and "Spartan attitude" toward poachers and other people she despised throughout the book, it was shocking to hear her calm voice when I watched a tape of her Johnny Carson interview. The most unexpected sweet and entrancing voice came from that woman. Seriously, may she rest in peace.)
Will be dropping this book off at a Little Free Library tomorrow, and really hope somebody else stumbles upon and absorbs this insanely detailed biography.
The insane specifics in political scenarios and personal feuds made some of this book drag on for me, but that can also be attributed to an incredibly well-detailed biography. Based on the author's intro and ending, I know that Mowat aimed to cover Dian Fossey's life in conservation through her personal journal entries and other first-hand accounts. This book did just that. I am impressed with that level of dedication in an author, and there were many times that I questioned how it was possible to recount certain events as precisely as this book did. Saying this, I still caught myself losing interest with that writing style, and needed to pay close attention to follow the way it was written. How. ever. Above all my reader's-preference complaining, I need to emphasize how insane Dian Fossey's life was.
I rarely annotate books in the way I annotated this one. I wasn't expecting so many love affairs and serious drama! She also went through such a physical beating with her constant sicknesses, broken bones, and medical emergencies throughout this book. I genuinely couldn't believe that this many near-death experiences and injuries were possible in a human life. And that's not even including the most life-threatening experiences that consistently arose from poachers during the time that she worked at the Karisoke Research Center. She genuinely never caught a break with tourist-driven individuals, organizations, and government officials who despised her conservation efforts at Karisoke. The events leading up to her murder really prove that, as well.
To wrap everything up here about my thoughts on this book, I'm honestly glad that I've read it. Before picking it up, I hate to admit that I had no idea who Dian Fossey was. This author covered her incredible life in a way that could not be replicated by anybody else, and in such detail that I cannot even be upset about the length of time it took for me to finish it.
(Side note: after reading about Dian's emotional intensity and "Spartan attitude" toward poachers and other people she despised throughout the book, it was shocking to hear her calm voice when I watched a tape of her Johnny Carson interview. The most unexpected sweet and entrancing voice came from that woman. Seriously, may she rest in peace.)
Will be dropping this book off at a Little Free Library tomorrow, and really hope somebody else stumbles upon and absorbs this insanely detailed biography.
June 16, 2019
I love the way that Farley Mowat wrote this book. It feels as if you're reading Dian Fossey's diary. However, I couldn't finish this book because I couldn't stand Dian Fossey. She was completely self-centred to the point of putting many people's lives in danger to achieve her own ends, and certainly not all of those having to do with protecting gorillas! I was so angered by her actions that I no longer cared about her or what would happen to her as a character, and so I had to stop reading.
March 25, 2009
Enduring passion of woman for a group of beautiful animals...she fought armies, poachers, boundaries and the desire to have her own life to protect them....remarkable.
March 25, 2021
4.5 stars
Dian Fossey was chosen by Louis Leakey (the same man who sent Jane Goodall to study chimpanzees) to study gorillas. Dian did not have a degree in a related field, though she loved animals. She started in the 1960s until she was murdered in her cabin in 1986. She fell hard for some men (though she never married), but she also did not get along with a lot of people, including some of the students who came to work with her. There was a lot of friction as different people had different ideas about how Karisoke (where she ultimately ended up studying the gorillas in the Virunga Mountains in Rwanda) should run.
The gorillas (and other animals there) were often targeted by poachers and the area also had farmers who allowed their cows into what was supposed to be a protected park area. Dian took it upon herself, in order to save the gorillas, to do (and train others to help… plus she used her own money to pay people since the park rangers didn’t appear to do anything to help) what she called “active conservation”. That is, destroying the snares/traps, rescuing as many animals caught in those traps and by poachers as possible, and catching the poachers. She didn’t agree with bringing tourists to visit the habituated gorillas, though she later relented as long as they were small groups, but she still wasn’t overly happy about it.
Farley Mowat took much of this book from Dian’s own journals/writings, and changes the font in the book to indicate when/where he is using Dian’s words. He fills in the rest. I read “Gorillas in the Mist” years ago. It focuses more on the gorillas themselves, whereas this (though it includes some of the gorillas) focuses more on Dian and the politics and relations with the various people involved. I also read a book by two of Dian’s former students who she didn’t get along with, but I don’t recall all the animosity (but it was so long ago, I may not be remembering, or maybe they left out some of the political issues). In any case, it would be a dream for me to study wild animals in the wild! So, I really enjoyed this. Frustrating at the people who weren’t helping Dian more with her “active” conservation, though I’m not sure I would be brave enough to confront poachers with guns and machetes, either!
Dian Fossey was chosen by Louis Leakey (the same man who sent Jane Goodall to study chimpanzees) to study gorillas. Dian did not have a degree in a related field, though she loved animals. She started in the 1960s until she was murdered in her cabin in 1986. She fell hard for some men (though she never married), but she also did not get along with a lot of people, including some of the students who came to work with her. There was a lot of friction as different people had different ideas about how Karisoke (where she ultimately ended up studying the gorillas in the Virunga Mountains in Rwanda) should run.
The gorillas (and other animals there) were often targeted by poachers and the area also had farmers who allowed their cows into what was supposed to be a protected park area. Dian took it upon herself, in order to save the gorillas, to do (and train others to help… plus she used her own money to pay people since the park rangers didn’t appear to do anything to help) what she called “active conservation”. That is, destroying the snares/traps, rescuing as many animals caught in those traps and by poachers as possible, and catching the poachers. She didn’t agree with bringing tourists to visit the habituated gorillas, though she later relented as long as they were small groups, but she still wasn’t overly happy about it.
Farley Mowat took much of this book from Dian’s own journals/writings, and changes the font in the book to indicate when/where he is using Dian’s words. He fills in the rest. I read “Gorillas in the Mist” years ago. It focuses more on the gorillas themselves, whereas this (though it includes some of the gorillas) focuses more on Dian and the politics and relations with the various people involved. I also read a book by two of Dian’s former students who she didn’t get along with, but I don’t recall all the animosity (but it was so long ago, I may not be remembering, or maybe they left out some of the political issues). In any case, it would be a dream for me to study wild animals in the wild! So, I really enjoyed this. Frustrating at the people who weren’t helping Dian more with her “active” conservation, though I’m not sure I would be brave enough to confront poachers with guns and machetes, either!
December 2, 2010
A recent National Geographic article states there were 680 mountain gorillas in the Virunga Mountains and Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. That there are any gorillas in this area of the world is due in no small part to the work of Diane Fossey.
Fossey started a research center in Virunga to study mountain gorillas. She spent almost two decades battling government, politicians, tourists, cattle herders, egomaniacal research students and poachers and still managed to learn more about mountain gorillas than had even been expected, not to mention set in motion the active conservation of their lives. The gorillas were seen as trophies (their heads and hands were most popular), goods for sale (too foreign zoos) and tourist attractions. Fossey helped interest those who could see the gorillas as more than this and it ultimately cost her life.
Reading Woman In the Mists is a rollercoaster in many aspects. While the descriptions of the animals are playful, fun and touching, for example, the descriptions of the atrocities committed on the animals are horrifying. Ditto the red tape and bureaucratic nonsense that allowed the continual slaughter of mountain gorillas and other animals in the Virunga State Park.
It struck me that Mowat’s writing in Woman In The Mist is markedly different than that of any other of his books I’ve read. Generally, he has a sort of old time, first person narrative, smooth and flowing. His writing here flows but it is significantly more journalistic in style and intent. None of the characteristics that are so much a part of Mowat’s writing are present here. Regardless, he does a fine job of summarizing the letters and papers Fossey left behind and telling the story of her research center and her life.
Fossey started a research center in Virunga to study mountain gorillas. She spent almost two decades battling government, politicians, tourists, cattle herders, egomaniacal research students and poachers and still managed to learn more about mountain gorillas than had even been expected, not to mention set in motion the active conservation of their lives. The gorillas were seen as trophies (their heads and hands were most popular), goods for sale (too foreign zoos) and tourist attractions. Fossey helped interest those who could see the gorillas as more than this and it ultimately cost her life.
Reading Woman In the Mists is a rollercoaster in many aspects. While the descriptions of the animals are playful, fun and touching, for example, the descriptions of the atrocities committed on the animals are horrifying. Ditto the red tape and bureaucratic nonsense that allowed the continual slaughter of mountain gorillas and other animals in the Virunga State Park.
It struck me that Mowat’s writing in Woman In The Mist is markedly different than that of any other of his books I’ve read. Generally, he has a sort of old time, first person narrative, smooth and flowing. His writing here flows but it is significantly more journalistic in style and intent. None of the characteristics that are so much a part of Mowat’s writing are present here. Regardless, he does a fine job of summarizing the letters and papers Fossey left behind and telling the story of her research center and her life.
July 11, 2017
Dian Fossey is vibrant in Mowat's biography. I particularly love the heavy use of her journal entries. It helps her come to life in this biography that spanned the last couple decades of her life.
I'm left wanting to trash talk her fellow scientists whose nasty letters are present. Particularly Sandy Harcourt. I googled him out of curiosity. He's Professor Emeritus at UC Davis && has a large smile in the picture he has on his faculty page. As a former anthropology student, I wonder if I'd like his classes?
Also I wonder if he was cast as more of an unlikable character because of his interest of gorillas being for tourists rather than the anti poaching incentives that Dian fought fiercely for. Mowat is after all a conservationist. There are two sides to situations.
Dian is the first of Louis Leaky's Trimates that I've read in depth about. I vaguely remember an anthropology class where she was mentioned as having gotten her position from sleeping with Louis. That's not how this biography portraits it. She is written as a vibrant woman with colorful lovers and a large sense of adventure. A position landed in her lap since she'd met Leaky on a safari and he remembered her a few years later on a speaking tour. This just goes to show that opportunity presents itself to those who seek it.
I fully intend to read Gorillas in the Mists now && to watch the movie. I hadn't realized I was interested until I found this book while wandering through the stacks at the library. I love when books jump out at me and they turn out to be wonderful!
I'll probably add this book to my bookshelves someday. I'll also probably pick up more Farley Mowat books (I like his style!) && books on the other trimates.
I'm left wanting to trash talk her fellow scientists whose nasty letters are present. Particularly Sandy Harcourt. I googled him out of curiosity. He's Professor Emeritus at UC Davis && has a large smile in the picture he has on his faculty page. As a former anthropology student, I wonder if I'd like his classes?
Also I wonder if he was cast as more of an unlikable character because of his interest of gorillas being for tourists rather than the anti poaching incentives that Dian fought fiercely for. Mowat is after all a conservationist. There are two sides to situations.
Dian is the first of Louis Leaky's Trimates that I've read in depth about. I vaguely remember an anthropology class where she was mentioned as having gotten her position from sleeping with Louis. That's not how this biography portraits it. She is written as a vibrant woman with colorful lovers and a large sense of adventure. A position landed in her lap since she'd met Leaky on a safari and he remembered her a few years later on a speaking tour. This just goes to show that opportunity presents itself to those who seek it.
I fully intend to read Gorillas in the Mists now && to watch the movie. I hadn't realized I was interested until I found this book while wandering through the stacks at the library. I love when books jump out at me and they turn out to be wonderful!
I'll probably add this book to my bookshelves someday. I'll also probably pick up more Farley Mowat books (I like his style!) && books on the other trimates.
March 5, 2017
Dian Fossey went to Rwanda to study Gorillas and ended up one of the world's leading experts. She gradually moved into the role of their protector. This brought her into conflict with establishment experts who did not see protection as part of their scientific mandate. Her point was simple; studies would be meaningless if the gorillas were poached into extinction. Her fierceness in the fight for "her" gorillas led not only to her murder, but to colleagues reacting to it with comments amounting to "She deserved it". She never said these exact words but essentially felt the earth has over 7 billion people and only around 500 mountain gorillas living in the wild, therefore, gorilla lives are more important . After reading this book I find it hard to disagree.
I can imagine no better person to have told her story than Farley Mowat, himself a strong advocate for the natural world and a World War II combat veteran.
I can imagine no better person to have told her story than Farley Mowat, himself a strong advocate for the natural world and a World War II combat veteran.
May 4, 2012
I thought this would be an interesting story, about how a woman was able to get close enough to the mountain gorillas to form personal bonds and document interesting facts about these creatures. The first part of the book introduced Dian Fossey, her childhood, and how she ended up in Africa, but the majority of the book delved into her dysfunctional relationships with men, her family, and colleagues. I felt this story was an unauthorized biography of sorts, and I wondered several times while reading this book, if Dian Fossey would have approved of the subject matter. I lost interest 3/4's of the way into the book after I realized I wasn't going to find out any real information about her bond with the gorillas. Her much publicized relationship with Digit was briefly written about. This was a disappointing book.
April 12, 2013
Woman in the Mists is an amazing account of how one woman's determination to be accepted by the mountain gorillas of Africa overrides everything else in her life. We see how she builds for herself an international reputation, is accepted by the animals she loves and in the end becomes their champion.
Dianne Fossey was one hell of a woman who was charming, intelligent, witty, changeable and extremely passionate about her mountain gorillas and the environment they lived in. She gave up everything to save this species.
In this biography we learn about her trials and tribulations with the natives, how she became disliked by many and made enemies, we also see her health deteriorate and how she dismissed falling in love and having a family.
I do recommend Woman in the Mists. It is a gripping read filled with lots of love, drama,and monkey-business.
Dianne Fossey was one hell of a woman who was charming, intelligent, witty, changeable and extremely passionate about her mountain gorillas and the environment they lived in. She gave up everything to save this species.
In this biography we learn about her trials and tribulations with the natives, how she became disliked by many and made enemies, we also see her health deteriorate and how she dismissed falling in love and having a family.
I do recommend Woman in the Mists. It is a gripping read filled with lots of love, drama,and monkey-business.
October 7, 2018
Fascinating read. Liked how it used some writing from her journal. I do however want to read another book about her as I feel I need some balance. Farley Mowat I believe saw her through rose colored glasses. Clearly, there are multiple actions and words from her that CLEARLY indicate racism. Blatant racism for sure. Felt that Mowat had blinders on and was in denial about this. Fascinating read none the less. I think I'm going to read A Forest in the Clouds by John Fowler.
December 31, 2012
Women who break the molds of gender role expectation always intrigue me. Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall are two of my most admired women of all time. Fossey's life was more rough and violent than Goodall's, but I admire her tenacity in the face of danger. This book will show you a non-rose-colored view of her life in the mountains of Africa.
February 11, 2008
Diane Fossey is my hero. This book inspired me to be brave, strong, and determined to make a positive difference in the world.
July 21, 2024
Woman in the Mists: The Story of Dian Fossey and the Mountain Gorillas of Africa by Farley Mowat (Warner Books 1987) (599.88) (3968).
Author-naturalist Farley Mowat has written a biography of noted primatologist and conservationist Dian Fossey, who worked with mountain gorillas in Rwanda. After Fossey was murdered, Mowat worked extensively from her notes and writings to let her voice be heard. Fossey’s memoir about her work with the gorillas, Gorillas in the Mist (1983), has been reprinted worldwide.
Dian Fosse was universally described as a prickly sort. She never married, and she often chose unsuitable men (married ex-pats) as lovers for a season or more. She smoked to excess and drank the same way. As a scientist and a researcher, she never became a member of the “old boy network,” for she never learned (or tried) to “go along to get along.” She was at best irascible and at worst impossible, but she loved the animals she studied: mountain gorillas.
She was murdered by an intruder at her home research station. The person who killed her split her head from crown to nose with a panga (machete).
I purchased a used PB copy in good condition from McKay’s Books for $2.00 on 6/5/24. My rating: 7/10, finished 7/20/24 (3968).
PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
April 10, 2020
Cannot believe it took me 30+ plus years to find and read this terrific book about this amazing woman.
Dian's passion for her mountain gorillas completely took over and literally ended her life. The book is biographical with inserts from Dian's own book(Gorillas in the Mist) throughout, and at times reads like a thriller, as you just can't predict what will happen next. Set in her camp on the Rwanda/Congo border, and with multiple trips to Europe and the US, Dian's quest for funding her research, native workers, food and travel is so limited by bureaucracy, hostile park and government workers, many betrayals from so-called friends and colleagues and her own debilitating physical condition, that I marveled that one lone woman did so much. I became so angry at the local government's easy treatment of the poachers and their brutality to the gorillas (and to many other animals), and so hope that times have changed there for the better. Now I must read Dian's own book, and find the movie somewhere.
Dian's passion for her mountain gorillas completely took over and literally ended her life. The book is biographical with inserts from Dian's own book(Gorillas in the Mist) throughout, and at times reads like a thriller, as you just can't predict what will happen next. Set in her camp on the Rwanda/Congo border, and with multiple trips to Europe and the US, Dian's quest for funding her research, native workers, food and travel is so limited by bureaucracy, hostile park and government workers, many betrayals from so-called friends and colleagues and her own debilitating physical condition, that I marveled that one lone woman did so much. I became so angry at the local government's easy treatment of the poachers and their brutality to the gorillas (and to many other animals), and so hope that times have changed there for the better. Now I must read Dian's own book, and find the movie somewhere.
January 10, 2021
This book covers Dian Fossey's life from 1963 to her death in 1985. This is the time in which she was engaged in the study and conservation of Mountain Gorillas in Rwanda. The book provides insights into Fossey as a person, both her love of the mountain gorillas and all other animals of the Virunga mountains but also her prickly personality. Her struggles with other scientists and members of the conservation community are well documented here. Also well documented is her controversial approach to "active conservation" that involved anti-poaching patrols, capture of poachers, confiscation of their weapons and destruction of their traps. Not as well documented, and I think this is a bit of a miss, is her equally controversial approach to studying the gorillas that involved their habituation to humans. Their was really no discussion of the nature of her findings; the results of her years long study.
January 31, 2025
I absolutely loved this book, from start to finish. Although at times it was difficult to keep track of names and their importance to Dian Fossey’s life, the detail in this biography was unmatched.
“Woman in the Mist” paints a complex picture of a woman willing to dedicate, and even give, her life to a cause with undying passion. Fossey found sanctuary among gorillas when she could not understand her own kind.
This book also details the difficult crossroads between preserving nature and human greed. When many sought to taint the unspoiled nature of the Virunga mountains for their own gain, Fossey looked to save the lives of all creatures that lived in the untouched forest.
In summary, “Woman in the Mist” is a beautiful testament to what it means to have humanity. Although plagued with difficult trials, Dian Fossey ultimately gave her life to protect those that could not protect themselves.
“Woman in the Mist” paints a complex picture of a woman willing to dedicate, and even give, her life to a cause with undying passion. Fossey found sanctuary among gorillas when she could not understand her own kind.
This book also details the difficult crossroads between preserving nature and human greed. When many sought to taint the unspoiled nature of the Virunga mountains for their own gain, Fossey looked to save the lives of all creatures that lived in the untouched forest.
In summary, “Woman in the Mist” is a beautiful testament to what it means to have humanity. Although plagued with difficult trials, Dian Fossey ultimately gave her life to protect those that could not protect themselves.
January 28, 2021
5 star! Read my full review on my blog -> http://bookworminglife.com/woman-in-t...
This is a book like no other – about a strong, determined and independent woman and how her work and her legacy lives on now in protecting the lives of mountain gorillas. This is the story of Dian Fossey and the mountain gorillas of Africa.
I’ve never read her book ‘Gorillas in the Mist’ but I’m going to treat this book as prequel to it. We learn about Dian and how she decided to leave her life behind to go to Rwanda and study the gorillas.
Before Fossey’s work, gorillas were viewed as brutes – violent and human killers. She dispelled these myths. She spent day after day patiently waiting until the gorillas accepted her presence, until they hugged her and loved her like she loved and admired them.
This is a book like no other – about a strong, determined and independent woman and how her work and her legacy lives on now in protecting the lives of mountain gorillas. This is the story of Dian Fossey and the mountain gorillas of Africa.
I’ve never read her book ‘Gorillas in the Mist’ but I’m going to treat this book as prequel to it. We learn about Dian and how she decided to leave her life behind to go to Rwanda and study the gorillas.
Before Fossey’s work, gorillas were viewed as brutes – violent and human killers. She dispelled these myths. She spent day after day patiently waiting until the gorillas accepted her presence, until they hugged her and loved her like she loved and admired them.
May 6, 2020
"Gorillas in the Mist" is about gorillas, and what it must be like, in general, to live around and with them. "Woman in the Mist" is about Fossey. The former is a far better book -- even though much of the latter is in fact in Fossey's words -- diaries, letters, unfinished memoir -- and her writing is often more poetic and passionate here. Reservations about the book come from its somewhat voyeuristic quality -- too much information, which doesn't really shed light on either gorillas or what science -- or life -- meant for Fossey, and from Mowat's writing style here. A fine and funny writer himself, he chose to write this in a flat just the facts ma'm style, so the book plods along.
February 14, 2019
This is the story of Dian Fossey, author of the book Gorillas in the Mist and subject of numerous documentaries and articles on the mountain gorillas. Farley Mowat quotes extensively from Dian’s journals and letters, and occasionally even from the book, making this largely a story told by Dian herself – a refreshing change from so many other biographies that reference (sometimes of necessity) dry historical references, or the imperfect recollections of friends and acquaintances, or even enemies.
March 1, 2022
So I didn't technically finish this but... Dian Fossey is one of the most unpleasant people I've ever read about. I couldn't keep reading - relentless negativity. I know she did good things for mountain gorillas, but I just could not get past her treatment of others. Selfish, petty, spiteful... portions of the book that are direct quotes from her writing (indicated in bold in the text - a text presentation that I did like) were often just poisonous.
Pretty off-putting subject, but I did enjoy Mowat's writing. Will try more of his stuff.
Pretty off-putting subject, but I did enjoy Mowat's writing. Will try more of his stuff.
March 8, 2020
Watched the movie, Gorillas in the Mist, and read this book after returning from my Mountain Gorilla trek in Rwanda. Loved the movie because it took me right back to the trek. This book paints a very vivid picture of the amazing and amazingly flawed Dian Fossey and the work she did to protect a quickly disappearing species. The gorillas are thriving today, although still very endangered, thanks in large part to the work she did.
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