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Volání divočiny
Autobiografie, podle které byl natočen mimořádně úspěšný film. V této knize se Adamsonová zmiňuje i o svém dětství v Opavě.
149 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
90 people want to read
About the author
Joy Adamson
46 books87 followersJoy Adamson (born Friederike Victoria Gessner) was a naturalist, artist, and author best known for her book, Born Free, which describes her experiences raising a lion cub named Elsa. Born Free was printed in several languages, and made into an Academy Award-winning movie of the same name. In 1977, she was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art.
Born to Victor and Traute Gessner in Troppau, Silesia, Austria-Hungary (now Opava, Czech Republic) and was the 2nd of 3 girls. Her father was a wealthy architect. After the divorce of her parents, Joy went to live with her grandmother. In her autobiography The Searching Spirit, Adamson wrote about her grandmother, saying, "It is to her I owe anything that may be good in me."
Adamson considered careers as a concert pianist, and in medicine, but did not take her finals in medicine, instead chosing to get married. She married 3 times in the span of ten years. Her husbands were Viktor von Klarwill (Ziebel) 1902-1985, (Jewish Austrian), the botanist Peter Bally (divorced in 1942), who gave her the nickname "Joy", and lastly game warden George Adamson. Viktor sent her to Africa, Bally influenced her painting and drawing of the people and the plant life of Africa. 600 of her paintings now belong to the National Museum of Kenya. The Colonial Government of Kenya commissioned her to paint portraits of members of 22 tribes whose culture was vanishing.
It was during her marriage to George Adamson that she lived in tent camps in Kenya and first met Elsa, the topic of her famous book Born Free. Adamson is best known for her conservation efforts associated with Elsa the Lioness. They decided to set her free rather than send her to a zoo, and spent many months training her to hunt and survive on her own. They were successful in the end, and Elsa became the first lioness successfully released back into the wild, the first to have contact after release, and the first known to have cubs. The Adamsons kept their distance from the cubs, getting close enough only to photograph them. After the book was written and published in 1960, it became a bestseller, spending 13 weeks at the top of The New York Times Best Seller list and nearly a year on the chart overall.
After Elsa died, George and Joy Adamson separated and were not together after 1971. On 3 January 1980, in Shaba National Reserve in Kenya, Joy Adamson's body was discovered by her assistant, Peter Morson (sometimes reported as Pieter Mawson). He mistakenly assumed she had been killed by a lion, and this was what was initially reported by the media. Police investigation found Adamson's wounds were too sharp and bloodless to have been caused by an animal, and concluded she had been murdered. Paul Nakware Ekai, a discharged laborer formerly employed by Adamson, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to imprisonment at President Daniel arap Moi's pleasure. Joy's widower, George Adamson, was murdered 9 years later, in 1989, near his camp in Kora National by poachers.
Born to Victor and Traute Gessner in Troppau, Silesia, Austria-Hungary (now Opava, Czech Republic) and was the 2nd of 3 girls. Her father was a wealthy architect. After the divorce of her parents, Joy went to live with her grandmother. In her autobiography The Searching Spirit, Adamson wrote about her grandmother, saying, "It is to her I owe anything that may be good in me."
Adamson considered careers as a concert pianist, and in medicine, but did not take her finals in medicine, instead chosing to get married. She married 3 times in the span of ten years. Her husbands were Viktor von Klarwill (Ziebel) 1902-1985, (Jewish Austrian), the botanist Peter Bally (divorced in 1942), who gave her the nickname "Joy", and lastly game warden George Adamson. Viktor sent her to Africa, Bally influenced her painting and drawing of the people and the plant life of Africa. 600 of her paintings now belong to the National Museum of Kenya. The Colonial Government of Kenya commissioned her to paint portraits of members of 22 tribes whose culture was vanishing.
It was during her marriage to George Adamson that she lived in tent camps in Kenya and first met Elsa, the topic of her famous book Born Free. Adamson is best known for her conservation efforts associated with Elsa the Lioness. They decided to set her free rather than send her to a zoo, and spent many months training her to hunt and survive on her own. They were successful in the end, and Elsa became the first lioness successfully released back into the wild, the first to have contact after release, and the first known to have cubs. The Adamsons kept their distance from the cubs, getting close enough only to photograph them. After the book was written and published in 1960, it became a bestseller, spending 13 weeks at the top of The New York Times Best Seller list and nearly a year on the chart overall.
After Elsa died, George and Joy Adamson separated and were not together after 1971. On 3 January 1980, in Shaba National Reserve in Kenya, Joy Adamson's body was discovered by her assistant, Peter Morson (sometimes reported as Pieter Mawson). He mistakenly assumed she had been killed by a lion, and this was what was initially reported by the media. Police investigation found Adamson's wounds were too sharp and bloodless to have been caused by an animal, and concluded she had been murdered. Paul Nakware Ekai, a discharged laborer formerly employed by Adamson, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to imprisonment at President Daniel arap Moi's pleasure. Joy's widower, George Adamson, was murdered 9 years later, in 1989, near his camp in Kora National by poachers.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 2, 2020
i’ve known for years we’ve had this book (obviously as it is much older than myself). but just lately i’ve started wondering why i’ve never really got into reading it. the answer is simple. while overall it is good and heartwarming book, the style of writing is very raw which makes it quite hard for me to read. it has almost diary feel with so much information (e.g. names, animal species). i also find some parts kinda disturbing from today’s perspective (p.94 i started crying so George kicked me, p.101 we found some glass bottles, plastic barrels and stuff under rocks which was thoughtful from them to hide it before their departure - note: i read it in Czech so the sentences are not literal).
i am disappointed in myself that i didn’t read it when i was younger. it is very fascinating memoir of a woman doing what she loved. also honest story about disappearing world.
i am disappointed in myself that i didn’t read it when i was younger. it is very fascinating memoir of a woman doing what she loved. also honest story about disappearing world.
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September 7, 2021her narrative skills don't rate as highly as her other many talents. Parts were fascinating however.
January 10, 2025
Amazing woman. Such adventures. All while living through tough times for women. Inspirational.
February 1, 2016
I always enjoy reading Joy Adamson's books and this is no exception. It's interesting from start to finish with plenty of stuff crammed into its pages. But while I was reading it I felt like this was as much as I wanted to know about her. She was presenting a positive spin on herself and on her life, and I couldn't help feeling that an objective biography would possibly show her in an entirely different light and reveal a very different personality. But I really wouldn't want to know about all that. I'm not desperate to know the real Joy Adamson. This is just an interesting book for showing us what she was getting up to in the rest of her life, and filling in some of the gaps between all her other books.
Elsa doesn't appear until three-quarters of the way through the book, and is passed over fairly quickly in summary, as is Pippa. Adamson doesn't waste time going over all the same old ground covered in her other books. Often she seems to prefer to try to tame wild animals wherever possible, rather than simply allowing them to get on with their lives without interference. I wonder if she would have enjoyed living in the wild half so much if she hadn't had tame animals for company. I don't really understand why she thought she had the right to demolish graves and exhume human remains either. She gives the impression of being a law unto herself.
Elsa doesn't appear until three-quarters of the way through the book, and is passed over fairly quickly in summary, as is Pippa. Adamson doesn't waste time going over all the same old ground covered in her other books. Often she seems to prefer to try to tame wild animals wherever possible, rather than simply allowing them to get on with their lives without interference. I wonder if she would have enjoyed living in the wild half so much if she hadn't had tame animals for company. I don't really understand why she thought she had the right to demolish graves and exhume human remains either. She gives the impression of being a law unto herself.
August 12, 2012
It was one of the books that just HAD to read as I have devoured all of her and George's books. So I am biased on this.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews