Gorillas in the Mist

VERY GOOD condition — DUST JACKET: Wear & tear to top and bottom of spine, panels, folds and flaps. Very minor chipping to top and bottom of spine, primarily at the corners. Small closed tear, top of spine. Spine sunned. Minor moisture stain to bottom, reverse. BOARDS: Very good condition. Foot of spine soft w/minor moisture stain, extending to back board. BOOK: Very good condition. Very slight lean to spine. Please inspect photos closely for condition details.

Here on offer is a very nice copy of Dian Fossey's groundbreaking book on Mountain primates, Gorillas in the Mist, an exhaustive study of same and the basis for the award-winning film of the same name. This copy is a 1st trade edition, 1st printing of the work published by Houghton Mifflin in 1983. The dust jacket is protected from further wear by a Mylar sleeve.

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"The inspiration for the Academy Award-nominated film, Gorillas in the Mist is the riveting account of Dian Fossey's thirteen years in a remote African rain forest with the greatest of the great apes.

Fossey's extraordinary efforts to ensure the future of the rain forest and its remaining mountain gorillas are captured in her own words and in candid photographs of this fascinating endangered species. As only she could, Fossey combined her personal adventure story with groundbreaking scientific reporting in an unforegettable portrait of one of our closest primate relatives.

Although Fossey's work ended tragically with her murder, Gorillas in the Mist remains an invaluable testament to one of the longest-running field studies of primates and reveals her undying passion for her subject."

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Dian Fossey (January 16, 1932 – c. December 26, 1985) was an American primatologist and conservationist known for undertaking an extensive study of mountain gorilla groups from 1966 until her murder in 1985. She studied them daily in the mountain forests of Rwanda, initially encouraged to work there by paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey. Gorillas in the Mist, a book published two years before her death, is Fossey's account of her scientific study of the gorillas at Karisoke Research Center and prior career. It was adapted into a 1988 film of the same name.

Fossey was a leading primatologist, and a member of the "Trimates", a group of female scientists recruited by Leakey to study great apes in their natural environments, along with Jane Goodall who studies chimpanzees, and Biruté Galdikas, who studies orangutans.

Fossey spent 20 years in Rwanda, where she supported conservation efforts, strongly opposed poaching and tourism in wildlife habitats, and made more people acknowledge the sapience of gorillas. Following the killing of a gorilla and subsequent tensions, she was murdered in her cabin at a remote camp in Rwanda in December 1985. Although Fossey's American research assistant was convicted in absentia, there is no consensus as to who killed her.

Her research and conservation work helped reduce the downward population trend in mountain gorillas.

The above text was taken from, respectively, Houghton Mifflin publishing (via Google Books) and Wikipedia.