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The Tree Where Man Was Born: The African Experience
In this classic volume, Matthiessen exquisitely combines both nature and travel writing to bring East Africa to vivid life. He skillfully portrays the daily lives of herdsmen and hunter-gatherers; the drama of the predator kills; the hundreds of exotic animals; the breathtaking landscapes; and the area's turbulent natural, political, and social histories.
248 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1972
57 people want to read
About the author
Peter Matthiessen
143 books912 followersPeter Matthiessen is the author of more than thirty books and the only writer to win the National Book Award for both non-fiction (The Snow Leopard, in two categories, in 1979 and 1980) and fiction (Shadow Country, in 2008). A co-founder of The Paris Review and a world-renowned naturalist, explorer and activist, he died in April 2014.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 6, 2025
It reads like travelog interweaving the evolution of various tribes with amazing views of the landscape and too detailed descriptions of animal kills. Traveling in East Africa in the late 1960s was quite an adventure. The photographs are a joy to
behold. It is a place to live in the moment like the ancient Hadza peoples.
behold. It is a place to live in the moment like the ancient Hadza peoples.
November 15, 2025
Matthiessen’s earlier work is here combined with Porter’s photography to compose a handsome, if dated, coffee table book. The prose is elegant and descriptive of the authors travels in East Africa and the photographs are stunning. The stories are simultaneously descriptive and philosophical.
December 20, 2011
I have often heard Peter Matthiessen described as one of the all-time best nature writers, but my first experience with his work (The Cloud Forest) didn't do as much for me as I had expected it to. This one though? This one got me.
While reading The Cloud Forest, I mostly had the impression that Matthiessen didn't really much enjoy his time in South America, and I felt that in many of his descriptions of the people, he seemed to be looking down on them, which, you know, made me not really like him all that much. In this book he seemed far more respectful of the people, the history, the wildlife, the geography (although yes, as this was written in 1972, and we've come a long way since then, there are some descriptions that might sound a little...awkward to our ears four decades later). Though he was certainly far from comfortable at times, he never seemed to sneer or disparage. And I really appreciated the way he described the problem of poaching, for instance, in a way that was very well-balanced and non-judgmental. At the same time though, I could feel a certain distance between himself and the people he met and the places he travelled throughout a lot of the book, and while there are a lot of very beautiful and informative descriptions, I didn't get the sense that much actually touched him until near the end, when there's this:
"Lying back against these ancient rocks of Africa, I am content. The great stillness in these landscapes that once made me restless seeps into me day by day, and with it the unreasonable feeling that I have found what I was searching for without ever having discovered what it was. In the ash of the old hearth, ant lions have countersunk their traps and wait in the loose dust for their prey; far overhead a falcon--and today I do not really care whether it is a peregrine or lanner--sails out over the rim of rock and on across the valley. The day is beautiful, my belly full, and returning to the cave this afternoon will be returning home..."
It makes me think that Africa actually opened something up and changed something in him, and isn't that what travel to new places should do? So I liked that.
My copy is the large, hardcover coffee-table-book-sized edition with photographs by Eliot Porter, and those also added a lot to the experience--there are some really fantastic images of the African landscape, wildlife and people.
Anyway, in the end, I really loved this. And I am now looking forward to reading more of Matthiessen's work, and with far fewer reservations than I had before reading this one!
While reading The Cloud Forest, I mostly had the impression that Matthiessen didn't really much enjoy his time in South America, and I felt that in many of his descriptions of the people, he seemed to be looking down on them, which, you know, made me not really like him all that much. In this book he seemed far more respectful of the people, the history, the wildlife, the geography (although yes, as this was written in 1972, and we've come a long way since then, there are some descriptions that might sound a little...awkward to our ears four decades later). Though he was certainly far from comfortable at times, he never seemed to sneer or disparage. And I really appreciated the way he described the problem of poaching, for instance, in a way that was very well-balanced and non-judgmental. At the same time though, I could feel a certain distance between himself and the people he met and the places he travelled throughout a lot of the book, and while there are a lot of very beautiful and informative descriptions, I didn't get the sense that much actually touched him until near the end, when there's this:
"Lying back against these ancient rocks of Africa, I am content. The great stillness in these landscapes that once made me restless seeps into me day by day, and with it the unreasonable feeling that I have found what I was searching for without ever having discovered what it was. In the ash of the old hearth, ant lions have countersunk their traps and wait in the loose dust for their prey; far overhead a falcon--and today I do not really care whether it is a peregrine or lanner--sails out over the rim of rock and on across the valley. The day is beautiful, my belly full, and returning to the cave this afternoon will be returning home..."
It makes me think that Africa actually opened something up and changed something in him, and isn't that what travel to new places should do? So I liked that.
My copy is the large, hardcover coffee-table-book-sized edition with photographs by Eliot Porter, and those also added a lot to the experience--there are some really fantastic images of the African landscape, wildlife and people.
Anyway, in the end, I really loved this. And I am now looking forward to reading more of Matthiessen's work, and with far fewer reservations than I had before reading this one!
February 25, 2018
NF
234 pages
Excellent! An African experience it was.
234 pages
Excellent! An African experience it was.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews