Beyond Innocence: An Autobiography in Letters The Later Years - Hardcover

Goodall, Jane

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0618125205 ISBN 13: 9780618125203

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2001

Synopsis

A second volume of letters by the renowned scientist chronicles her greatest trials and tribulations, from making startling discoveries about chimpanzee behavior and the birth of her son Grub to her marriage to Derek Bryceson and and her mission to stop chimpanzees from being injected with HIV, which forced her to evolve from a private observer to a public crusader. 25,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author

Dale Peterson is the author of THE DELUGE AND THE ARK and coauthor, with Richard Wrangham, of DEMONIC MALES . He resides in Massachusetts.

Jane Goodall was a young secretarial school graduate when Louis Leakey sent her to Tanzania in 1960 to study chimpanzees. She later received a Ph.D. from Cambridge University and has become one of the world's most honored scientists and writers. Jane Goodall's research on chimpanzees has been described by Stephen Jay Gould as "one of the Western world's great scientific achievements." Her books include the recent REASON FOR HOPE, IN THE SHADOW OF MAN, and THROUGH A WINDOW. She is the co-author with Dale Peterson of VISIONS OF CALIBAN. She resides in Tanzania.

Reviews

The second volume of primatologist Goodall's personal and professional correspondence, this book is a welcome sequel to the critically acclaimed Africa in My Blood. Like that collection, it is edited by Goodall's sometime coauthor Dale Peterson (The Deluge and the Ark), who has wisely retained Goodall's erratic use of punctuation (e.g., multiple exclamation points and emphatic dashes) rather than cleaning it up. As a result, these letters have an immediacy and freshness that a more traditional autobiography could not have conveyed. Goodall's tendency to describe major scientific discoveries as "so super" is both charming and moving. Writing to her family about the chance discovery that ostriches use stones to break open eggs, thus putting them in the same tool-utilizing class as chimps, she exclaims, "I have to tell you our most EXCITING news... It is dead secret at the moment till published in Nature. A NEW TOOL!!!!! Isn't it FANTASTIC!!" Readers may also be amused by Goodall's somewhat dismissive remarks about fellow researcher Dian Fossey ("the gorilla girl"), her offhand comments about her own groundbreaking research ("my chimp stuff") and her habit of juxtaposing descriptions of her own baby with those of chimp offspring. They also will be fascinated to learn that some of Goodall's writings on more disturbing topics such as a polio epidemic were rejected by National Geographic on the grounds that they were "too sad." (July 12) Forecast: These letters confirm Goodall's reputation as a writer whose capacity to empathize with the animals she studies truly separates her from the pack. Her fans will clamor for this book.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Goodall needs no introduction, for we are all familiar with the blond, pony-tailed young woman with her chimpanzees. Her 40 years of research in Tanzania are justly famous, and her ongoing advocacy for the protection of chimpanzees keeps her in the limelight. But how well do we know the real Jane Goodall? In this, the second volume of Goodall's letters, a lively portrait is formed through her missives as the young woman rose to the height of her scientific contributions and fame. She became a mother, divorced her first husband, married her second, and lost him to cancer. She was also the first to observe cannibalism in chimps, lost many of her study troop during a polio epidemic, and weathered the kidnapping of a group of her students. Goodall's letters are always distinctly English in tone, enthusiastic, and informal--even her business letters communicate her warmth--but through the years, they reveal the growing sense of purpose in her life as she becomes an activist for chimpanzee welfare. Editor Peterson provides background to the letters as he stitches them together with biographical information and footnotes. This illuminating glimpse into the mind, emotions, and philosophy of an important scientist who also happens to be a celebrated figure will be requested in all libraries. Nancy Bent
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Readers of Africa in My Blood: An Autobiography in Letters might think that Goodall had already done it all, but this new volume reveals how much there was to come: dedication to protecting as well as studying chimpanzees, plus personal events that included the birth of a son, the end of a marriage, and new love found and tragically lost.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0618125205
• ISBN 13: 9780618125203
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 432
• Editor: Peterson Dale