Stories of the Gorilla Country Narrated for Young People
New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1869. Original Edition. Hardcover. Brown cloth/boards. Elaborate gilt decoration and lettering on spine; gilt image, banner, and lettering on front cover. xii, 292, [6] pp. with bw frontis and additional bw illustrations and plates. Good. Gilt still fresh, but covers have some soiling, bumps to spine and corners; one signature detached and laid in, and binding is loosening a bit at other spots; former owner's name and contemporary sticker (perhaps the bookseller) on fep. Item #159242
Paul Belloni Du Chaillu was a French-American traveler, zoologist, and anthropologist. He became famous in the 1860s as the first modern European outsider to confirm the existence of gorillas, and later the Pygmy people of central Africa. There are two aspects which makes du Chaillu’s books so unique and delightful for young people. First, is that he is an eyewitness to all that he reports on, rather than an interpreter of other's tales. Second, he appears to have been motivated entirely by love of adventure and curiosity. Because of the drama and entertainment value of his accounts, du Chaillu was better known as a story teller than as a serious historian, although his scholarship and contributions to the fields of geology, zoology, and anthropology, were no less than first rate. Some have claimed that he was the inspiration for the character Tarzan, and it is obvious that Burroughs was at least passing familiar with his work. Based on some of du Chaillu's accounts of his pet chimpanzees, a case could even be made that he was an inspiration for the authors of Curious George.
OCLC: 191235156
Price: $50.00