Four Years In Paradise

by Osa Johnson, Mary Zeiss Stange (Foreword)

Osa Johnson (1894-1953) was, with her husband Martin, a pioneer in the field of wildlife filmmaking. From the time they eloped in 1910 until Martin's death in a plane crash in 1937, the Johnsons made numerous trips to the South Seas and five major expeditions to Africa. Together they produced more than fifty films, ranging from single-reel silents to feature-length sound films. The sequel to her bestselling "I Married Adventure", "Four Years in Paradise" (first published in 1941) tells the story of the Johnson's protracted stay at Lake Paradise in Kenya.

"For bravery and steadiness and endurance, Osa is the equal of any man I ever saw. She is a woman through and through. There is nothing 'mannish' about her. Yet as a comrade in the wilderness she is better than any man I ever saw." - Martin Johnson.

Genres: Nonfiction, Adventure, Travel

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1941

About the author

In the first half of the 20th century an American couple from Kansas named Martin and Osa Johnson captured the public's imagination through their films and books of adventure in exotic, far-away lands...Photographers, explorers, naturalists and authors, Martin and Osa studied the wildlife and peoples of East and Central Africa, the South Pacific Islands and British North Borneo...They explored then unknown lands and brought back knowledge of cultures thousands of miles away through their films, writings and lectures.

From 1917-1936, the Johnsons set up camp in some of the most remote areas of the world and provided an unmatched photographic record of the wildernesses of Kenya, the Congo, British North Borneo and the Solomon and New Hebrides Islands...Their equipment was the most advanced motion pictures apparatus of the day, some of it designed by Martin Johnson himself.

When the young adventurers left their home in Kansas to explore and photograph these lands, little did they realize that they would provide the world with a photographic record of the African game of unimagined magnitude and beauty...The Johnsons gave the filmmakers and researchers of today an important source of ethnological and zoological material which would otherwise have been lost.

Their photographs represent one of the great contributions to the pictorial history of the world...Their films serve to document a wilderness that has long since vanished, tribal cultures and customs that ceased to exist.

Through popular movies such as SIMBA (1928) and BABOONA (1935) and best-selling books still in print such as I Married Adventure (1940), Martin and Osa popularized camera safaris and an interest in African wildlife conservation for generations of Americans...Their legacy is a record of the animals and cultures of many remote areas of the world which have undergone significant changes.

The outstanding accomplishments and legacy of Martin and Osa Johnson - their films, photographs, expedition reports, correspondence and personal memorabilia - are housed at The Martin and Osa Johnson Museum.

Reviews

[Kristin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh so poorly written-- when they decided to re-print this, they should have given it a good editing too. But I HAD to read this book from cover to cover because it took place at Lake Paradise, MY Lake Paradise, in a very remote region of Northern Kenya. I wanted to read about what it was like then (in the 1920s). Osa and Martin Johnson were filmmakers and entertainers-- but were committed to documenting the wildlife (and the "natives") for the rest of the world to see and to wonder. Many of their photographs are still in use at the American Museum of Natural History. I'd recommend it to anyone who is interested in wildlife, in early filmmaking, or travelogues in general.

[Barb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started this book and couldn't put it down. If you've ever dreamed of Africa in the past, then this is your book. Read "I Married Adventure" first by Osa Johnson.

[Rudolf Waldner · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a treat! Osa does such a great job painting a picture of Africa.
You can feel, from her words, how the animal populations have declined from then until now. I highly recommend this book and look forward to my next book from the explorer/ author Osa Johnson.


Rudolf J Waldner
The Corporate Jungle: Animal Personalities Colliding with Job Titles
Marketing from the Trenches: Your Guide to Retail Success

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Johnson's, Osa and Martin, gained worldwide fame in the first half of the 20th century with their groundbreaking films of East Africa and the South Pacific. They combined natural history observations with adventure and "exploration." Osa's books recount their activities in a deliberately folksy and "aw shucks" style, exploiting her persona as "just a girl from Kansas." Her books are fun to read if you can ignore the obvious limitations of her time. Osa fished, hunted, and dressed in "male" clothing while always appearing in photographs with neatly shingled hair and properly applied makeup. This book details their extended research and filming in Kenya and is an excellent picture of a certain perspective on the age.

[suz]

I read this book as a teenager. I found it in the library while wandering in the stacks. What I, a suburban anglo teen with little knowledge of Africa or anthropology, took from that book, written by two white folks from Kansas on safari, was very different than what I would make of it today. I wonder if today's teens are as naive about racism, bigotry, and cultural isolation as I was then. As others have remarked, the photography and cinematography are valuable as there was little visual recording at that time.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for work, probably the most fun I've had doing a research project.