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Dreaming of Lions: My Life in the Wild Places
Elizabeth Marshall Thomas has spent a lifetime observing other creatures and other cultures, from her own backyard to the African savannah. Her books have transported millions of readers into the hidden lives of animals―from dogs and cats to deer and lions. She’s chronicled the daily lives of African tribes, and even imagined the lives of prehistoric humans. She illuminates unknown worlds like no other. Now, she opens the doors to her own.
Dreaming of Lions traces Thomas’s life from her earliest days, including when, as a young woman in the 1950s, she and her family packed up and left for the Kalahari Desert to study the Ju/Wa Bushmen. The world’s understanding of African tribal cultures has never been the same since. Nor has Thomas, as the experience taught her not only how to observe, but also how to navigate in male-dominated fields like anthropology and animal science and do what she cared about spending time with animals and people in wild places, and relishing the people and animals around her at home.
Readers join Thomas as she returns to Africa, after college and marriage, with her two young children, ending up in the turmoil leading to Idi Amin’s bloody coup. She invites us into her family life, her writing, and her fascination with animals―from elephants in Namibia, to dogs in her kitchen, or cougars outside her New England farmhouse. She also recounts her personal struggles, writing about her own life with the same kind of fierce honesty that she applies to the world around her, and delivering a memoir that not only shares tremendous insights, but also provides tremendous inspiration.
Dreaming of Lions , originally published in hardcover as A Million Years With You , is slightly updated and includes a powerful new afterword by the author.
Dreaming of Lions traces Thomas’s life from her earliest days, including when, as a young woman in the 1950s, she and her family packed up and left for the Kalahari Desert to study the Ju/Wa Bushmen. The world’s understanding of African tribal cultures has never been the same since. Nor has Thomas, as the experience taught her not only how to observe, but also how to navigate in male-dominated fields like anthropology and animal science and do what she cared about spending time with animals and people in wild places, and relishing the people and animals around her at home.
Readers join Thomas as she returns to Africa, after college and marriage, with her two young children, ending up in the turmoil leading to Idi Amin’s bloody coup. She invites us into her family life, her writing, and her fascination with animals―from elephants in Namibia, to dogs in her kitchen, or cougars outside her New England farmhouse. She also recounts her personal struggles, writing about her own life with the same kind of fierce honesty that she applies to the world around her, and delivering a memoir that not only shares tremendous insights, but also provides tremendous inspiration.
Dreaming of Lions , originally published in hardcover as A Million Years With You , is slightly updated and includes a powerful new afterword by the author.
320 pages, Paperback
First published March 4, 2016
12 people are currently reading
245 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
46 books255 followersElizabeth Marshall Thomas is the author of The Harmless People, a non fiction work about the Kung Bushmen of southwestern Africa, and of Reindeer Moon, a novel about the paleolithic hunter gatherers of Siberia, both of which were tremendous international successes. She lives in New Hampshire.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 20, 2017
Elizabeth Marshall Thomas is an extraordinary individual and her memoir is equally so: quirky, thoughtful, opinionated and following in absolutely no way any standard 'autobiography/memoir' structure. This book is what she thinks we need to know about her; readers who want things like dates or more of her opinions on certain topics, well, she told us what she wanted and if we don't like it we can bloody well go elsewhere. At least that's roughly what I took from it.
Originally published as A Million Years With You, it was updated & re-released in 2016 under this new title. It's absolutely a memoir as opposed to an autobiography: dates are seldom given and Thomas relates the events that loomed large in her life but leaves out much that one typically finds in memoir/autobiography.
Several times I found myself wanting more and realized (again) that I was getting what she wanted to tell me so I'd better digest it properly; I quickly began enjoying her scalpel-sharp honesty! Unlike many memoirists she doesn't pretend she's telling us everything while leaving out important details, even sub-consciously. Thomas has very clear ideas about what she's willing to share of herself and as a reader I was never in doubt as to her opinions on a given event, even the few times I found myself forming broader opinions as to that event. The result is that I feel I have a much better grasp of her character, and it also feels like that is what she intended.
This is who she is: take it or leave it, she's not going to sugarcoat herself or her actions for the approval of strangers. What seems clear is that Elizabeth Marshall Thomas is a formidable intellect with a thoughtful, honest strength of character and self-perception. Did she come from privilege? Unarguably. Did she turn that privilege to good use, to the benefit of others? Absolutely she did, and without feeling the need to boast or preach about it.
If you've read some of her non-fiction (The Tribe of Tiger: Cats and Their Culture, The Hidden Life of Dogs, The Harmless People or Warrior Herdsmen in particular), some of the chapters will feel familiar. The basis for these works, whether it was time spent in another culture or time spent observing cats, dogs, wolves or people clearly resonated with her and deeply informed her self-perception. She seems a person who is clear-eyed in her self-assessments: she doesn't spare herself from her own critical gaze but she never wallows in self-criticism and never even approaches self-pity! She finds her own battle with breast cancer either too personal to relate, or of little to no interest to herself after the fact: it is dismissed in a single, throw-away sentence in relating the tale of another's suffering.
Something a number of reviewers felt the need to criticize was taking her young children with her to various (sometimes dangerous) research trips in Africa, first to Uganda, later to Nigeria. If you have difficulty with the thought of children living in the real world then these chapters won't be for you; I found them fascinatingly informative. Had she not had her children with her I doubt she would have survived living alone in such volatile times/places, let alone been able to make significant contributions to the ethnological body of knowledge concerning rapidly vanishing ways of life. The worlds she and her children experienced changed irrevocably in the following two decades and without her courage they would have been yet more human experiences that vanished without the English-speaking outside world ever knowing, and that would've been a damned shame.
If you've enjoyed even one of her books I strongly encourage you to try Dreaming of Lions. It, and she, are truly extraordinary.
Originally published as A Million Years With You, it was updated & re-released in 2016 under this new title. It's absolutely a memoir as opposed to an autobiography: dates are seldom given and Thomas relates the events that loomed large in her life but leaves out much that one typically finds in memoir/autobiography.
Several times I found myself wanting more and realized (again) that I was getting what she wanted to tell me so I'd better digest it properly; I quickly began enjoying her scalpel-sharp honesty! Unlike many memoirists she doesn't pretend she's telling us everything while leaving out important details, even sub-consciously. Thomas has very clear ideas about what she's willing to share of herself and as a reader I was never in doubt as to her opinions on a given event, even the few times I found myself forming broader opinions as to that event. The result is that I feel I have a much better grasp of her character, and it also feels like that is what she intended.
This is who she is: take it or leave it, she's not going to sugarcoat herself or her actions for the approval of strangers. What seems clear is that Elizabeth Marshall Thomas is a formidable intellect with a thoughtful, honest strength of character and self-perception. Did she come from privilege? Unarguably. Did she turn that privilege to good use, to the benefit of others? Absolutely she did, and without feeling the need to boast or preach about it.
If you've read some of her non-fiction (The Tribe of Tiger: Cats and Their Culture, The Hidden Life of Dogs, The Harmless People or Warrior Herdsmen in particular), some of the chapters will feel familiar. The basis for these works, whether it was time spent in another culture or time spent observing cats, dogs, wolves or people clearly resonated with her and deeply informed her self-perception. She seems a person who is clear-eyed in her self-assessments: she doesn't spare herself from her own critical gaze but she never wallows in self-criticism and never even approaches self-pity! She finds her own battle with breast cancer either too personal to relate, or of little to no interest to herself after the fact: it is dismissed in a single, throw-away sentence in relating the tale of another's suffering.
Something a number of reviewers felt the need to criticize was taking her young children with her to various (sometimes dangerous) research trips in Africa, first to Uganda, later to Nigeria. If you have difficulty with the thought of children living in the real world then these chapters won't be for you; I found them fascinatingly informative. Had she not had her children with her I doubt she would have survived living alone in such volatile times/places, let alone been able to make significant contributions to the ethnological body of knowledge concerning rapidly vanishing ways of life. The worlds she and her children experienced changed irrevocably in the following two decades and without her courage they would have been yet more human experiences that vanished without the English-speaking outside world ever knowing, and that would've been a damned shame.
If you've enjoyed even one of her books I strongly encourage you to try Dreaming of Lions. It, and she, are truly extraordinary.
June 4, 2016
The first sections upon the author's youth and her experience with the Bushman culture were 4 star, at the least. Somehow the continuity for the other expositions for her other books upon the people in what is now Uganda and then subsequently the one in Western Nigeria- they were 3.
The differences were mostly in the voice of the author and what holistic context she seem to achieve with the former rather than with the latter trips. Because the Bushman culture was so much more entwined within incredible naturalistic knowledge of the plant, animal, physical feature world. Such natural history for hunter-gatherer life as it is lived. Those people and their work and structures described in such enthralling manner.
Spoiler alert.
It was another era, with other cultural sensibilities both at home and in Africa. But bringing your kids (3 and 5 years of age) into raids between tribes? Idi Amin as a Corporal committed atrocities, which are eye witness detailed by E.M Thomas. Seriously, I didn't see it coming, nor her reactions. There was a point in this read that I strongly disliked her choices. Enough to set it aside and consider not wanting to continue. But I did return to it some days later.
She's not an anthropologist. But she is highly intelligent and uses the same basic approaches to inclusion and observation in similar documentation. And for loyalty to her hosts, as well- that is always a prerequisite. So her information and travels are highly, highly interesting and do have immense value. Especially upon the hunter-gatherers and the pastoral who no longer "meet the spear".
What she initiated is travelogue and worldview for publication. She was paid before the trips to support her travel costs and equipment/trucks, aides/translators (always hired from the tribal groups she visits) and her copy is the resulting product.
She's honest, I'll say that- VERY. The last third of the book is much later than the 1950's-1970's period of the middle third of the book. It was better- 4 star, as good as the beginning.
Born in 1931, her sensibility in any culture, especially her own, was way ahead of her times.
Lions, leopards! And Mamba snakes. Children Protective Services would send a team in today.
3.5 stars and I wish I could go higher. All of her former books, I have read in the past in their decades of first publishing. And they are all 4 or 5 star. I would have appreciated more information about her marriage relationship. How that worked as well as it did for half a century under such separations and under so much physical danger, and much less about her alcohol addiction (yes, I know it is important but I'm not so sure she herself realizes the after effects of seeing the acts she has seen). Because I think that relationship (marriage) was phenomenal for her era or any era. He seemed to be able to laugh away and become so entrenched in his own interests that the "give" went both ways.
The photos in the book, even those which are difficult to interpret (small and old types of film) are 5 star.
Someday I hope the daughter or the son writes their own. The daughter sounds like she would and has the spirit of her grandfather, having overcome so many obstacles after her horrendous injury.
The differences were mostly in the voice of the author and what holistic context she seem to achieve with the former rather than with the latter trips. Because the Bushman culture was so much more entwined within incredible naturalistic knowledge of the plant, animal, physical feature world. Such natural history for hunter-gatherer life as it is lived. Those people and their work and structures described in such enthralling manner.
Spoiler alert.
It was another era, with other cultural sensibilities both at home and in Africa. But bringing your kids (3 and 5 years of age) into raids between tribes? Idi Amin as a Corporal committed atrocities, which are eye witness detailed by E.M Thomas. Seriously, I didn't see it coming, nor her reactions. There was a point in this read that I strongly disliked her choices. Enough to set it aside and consider not wanting to continue. But I did return to it some days later.
She's not an anthropologist. But she is highly intelligent and uses the same basic approaches to inclusion and observation in similar documentation. And for loyalty to her hosts, as well- that is always a prerequisite. So her information and travels are highly, highly interesting and do have immense value. Especially upon the hunter-gatherers and the pastoral who no longer "meet the spear".
What she initiated is travelogue and worldview for publication. She was paid before the trips to support her travel costs and equipment/trucks, aides/translators (always hired from the tribal groups she visits) and her copy is the resulting product.
She's honest, I'll say that- VERY. The last third of the book is much later than the 1950's-1970's period of the middle third of the book. It was better- 4 star, as good as the beginning.
Born in 1931, her sensibility in any culture, especially her own, was way ahead of her times.
Lions, leopards! And Mamba snakes. Children Protective Services would send a team in today.
3.5 stars and I wish I could go higher. All of her former books, I have read in the past in their decades of first publishing. And they are all 4 or 5 star. I would have appreciated more information about her marriage relationship. How that worked as well as it did for half a century under such separations and under so much physical danger, and much less about her alcohol addiction (yes, I know it is important but I'm not so sure she herself realizes the after effects of seeing the acts she has seen). Because I think that relationship (marriage) was phenomenal for her era or any era. He seemed to be able to laugh away and become so entrenched in his own interests that the "give" went both ways.
The photos in the book, even those which are difficult to interpret (small and old types of film) are 5 star.
Someday I hope the daughter or the son writes their own. The daughter sounds like she would and has the spirit of her grandfather, having overcome so many obstacles after her horrendous injury.
March 18, 2017
Originally published in hardback as A Million Years with You, this is her memoir. As a college-age adult, her family made several trips to Namibia to study the bushmen. Later, at the encouragement of The New Yorker, she made trips to Uganda (an anthropological study of the Dodoth people group) and Nigeria (the political situation in a traditional situation which happened to involve being present during a coup). Other chapters focus on her two children, her writing career and her battles with alcoholism.
The Africa chapters were interesting and I was disappointed in the rest of the book. This edition contains an afterward not included in the original hardback focusing on her husband’s illness, death and her struggles to move forward.
The Africa chapters were interesting and I was disappointed in the rest of the book. This edition contains an afterward not included in the original hardback focusing on her husband’s illness, death and her struggles to move forward.
December 7, 2016
This was a wild book, in several senses of the word: wild as in Elizabeth Thomas was a real hippie in the earliest back-to-nature sense of one who wants to understand nature deeply and live fully integrated into it; wild also in the semi-dangerous adventures she jumped right into twice as a cultural anthropologist in the Nigeria's Kalahari when Idi Amin was on the rise, bringing (of course!) her husband & her kids right along with her; and wild in the sense that she loves wild animals above all and (probably) wants to be one herself....
She writes with honesty--which I like--but also a kind of fierce aggressiveness that is at times difficult to stomach, about her youth as a dreamer of wild escapades in the 1950s, her "other" life raising-kids & trying to write books in rural New England, her struggles with alcohol & rehab, her children's later life challenges, the animals she was always watching all around her wherever in the world she found herself....
In the end, this book didn't engage my heart as much as some other "wild" books; it was just too in-my-face angry... or isolationist, or cold...or something. Maybe she IS indeed a wild animal of a kind, &--as attracted to them as I am--I'm just not.
She writes with honesty--which I like--but also a kind of fierce aggressiveness that is at times difficult to stomach, about her youth as a dreamer of wild escapades in the 1950s, her "other" life raising-kids & trying to write books in rural New England, her struggles with alcohol & rehab, her children's later life challenges, the animals she was always watching all around her wherever in the world she found herself....
In the end, this book didn't engage my heart as much as some other "wild" books; it was just too in-my-face angry... or isolationist, or cold...or something. Maybe she IS indeed a wild animal of a kind, &--as attracted to them as I am--I'm just not.
October 18, 2019
The first 5 chapters were great and fit the title. The rest weren't that great and didn't fit the title.
January 5, 2023
Really enjoyed this look into Elizabeth's life. The story jumps from different parts of her life but overall a pretty interesting.
August 7, 2023
Mooi verhaal, maar beetje traag en soms teveel uitwijden over onderwerpen die niets met het verhaal te maken hebben
July 28, 2024
An interesting autobiography with lots of detail.
August 20, 2016
Wow! In 1951, as a young eighteen year old college freshman, Thomas and her family traveled to the Kalahari Basin in Africa. Any one of the adventures detailed in this book would provide most of us with stories to last a lifetime, but Thomas and her family were so immersed in their natural surroundings and interaction with the local tribes that nearly every page is filled with astonishing, terrifying, and/or gripping descriptions of their expeditions.
One experience alone was more than worth the price of the book for me: "Once when we were traveling, we were very tired when night came so we didn't make a camp. We just put our sleeping bags on the ground. In the morning we found the tracks of lions all around us. They had even looked down into our faces. I was glad not to have opened my eyes to look up into the nostrils of a lion. But this, we were to learn, was normal lion behavior. The Ju/wasi didn't hunt them, of course, which seemed to have something to do with the situation. As one Ju/wa man told us, if people hunted lions, as did the pastoralists who lived at the edges of the Kalahari, the lions would hunt people, but if people left them alone, they wouldn't."
This explanation really got to me - such a simple, sensible statement, but so incredibly profound in what it means.
I look forward to reading more of her books, beginning with "The Hidden Life of Deer: Lessons from the Natural World," which I also own.
One experience alone was more than worth the price of the book for me: "Once when we were traveling, we were very tired when night came so we didn't make a camp. We just put our sleeping bags on the ground. In the morning we found the tracks of lions all around us. They had even looked down into our faces. I was glad not to have opened my eyes to look up into the nostrils of a lion. But this, we were to learn, was normal lion behavior. The Ju/wasi didn't hunt them, of course, which seemed to have something to do with the situation. As one Ju/wa man told us, if people hunted lions, as did the pastoralists who lived at the edges of the Kalahari, the lions would hunt people, but if people left them alone, they wouldn't."
This explanation really got to me - such a simple, sensible statement, but so incredibly profound in what it means.
I look forward to reading more of her books, beginning with "The Hidden Life of Deer: Lessons from the Natural World," which I also own.
November 3, 2016
I found this book fascinating! As someone who loves animals, I enjoyed reading about her studies and observations of them. I also was impressed with all she had been through, and her fortitude in handling all the curve balls life threw her way.
June 21, 2022
Later edition of A Million Years With You. There's some extra writing in this one, but I love that cover. (There's an image of her, carrying her child on her back, with her head thrown back.) I bought both.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews