Born Free: A Lioness of Two Worlds by Joy Adamson
Dust jacket notes: "Out of Africa comes the story of the most remarkable association between man and wild beast ever told. Joy Adamson is the wife of a game warden in Kenya. One day her husband was called out to deal with a man-eating lion. While stalking the lion he was suddenly charged by a lioness whom he had to shoot in self-defense. In the crevice of some nearby rocks he found three cubs. They decided to rear one of them as a pet. This is by no means the first case of a lion cub being reared by Europeans. But in all previous instances, the foster parents eventually had to face up to the problem of how to dispose of a fully grown lion; they had to choose between the two alternatives, consigning it to a zoo or giving it a freedom which it was unfit to enjoy or even survive. The Adamson's foresaw this dilemma and worked out a solution. They deliberately set about training their lioness, Elsa, to kill and fend for herself. They succeeded in turning her back into the fierce wild animal nature had intended her to be. At the same time they preserved undiminished the bond of confidence and affection which they had established with her as a pet.
"Today the lioness lives the proud life of the king of beasts. She has found a mate and had produced a litter of cubs. Her foster parents visit her at regular intervals. On arrival in her area they fire a few shots in the air and wait for her to come bounding out of the bush. She is always touchingly glad to see them and gives them a boisterous welcome. Hers is a unique story-of a lion who has bridged the gulf between two worlds, that of the jungle and of man, to enjoy the freedom of both. Never before has the life history of a wild animal been so intimately recorded over such a long period or been documented at every stage by such a remarkable collection of photographs, numbering in the thousands, of which over one hundred are reproduced in the book."
1ST EDITION; 1960 Pantheon, 1st printing; VG-/VG-; solid hardcover, extremities bumped and rubbed with light fraying at tail, small smudge fore-edge, binding square and tight, pages mildly age-toned, unmarked; unclipped dust jacket, edge-worn with notable chipping at extremities, substantially intact, in new protective mylar sleeve
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