The Ghosts of Gombe - by Dale Peterson (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This book, written by the author of the "definitive" biography of primatologist Jane Goodall, presents in sweeping detail the story of a group of young volunteers and students doing animal behavior research on chimpanzees, baboons, and red colobus monkeys at Dr. Goodall's research site in Tanzania's Gombe Stream National Park during the late 1960s. Goodall, who began her work in the summer of 1960, was originally sponsored by the great paleontologist Louis Leakey and funded by the National Geographic Society. Her early studies of chimpanzees soon made her world famous as one of the great pioneers in primatology, and she began working to transform her original tented camp into a major field station for animal studies. Then came a tragic event that marked the final summer of that promising first decade and is the focus of this book. At aroundnoon, on Saturday, July 12, 1969, Ruth Davis, a young American working at Gombe as a volunteer, walked out of camp to follow a chimpanzee into the forest and never returned. Her body was found six days later floating in a pool at the base of a high waterfall. The Ghosts of Gombe explores the social tensions that developed among the small community of researchers during 1968 and 1969; considers thoroughly how the death might have happened; and describes the painful personal consequences for some of the surviving researchers."--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

On July 12, 1969, Ruth Davis, a young American volunteer at Dr. Jane Goodall's famous chimpanzee research camp in the Gombe Stream National Park of Tanzania, East Africa, walked out of camp to follow a chimpanzee into the forest. Six days later, her body was found floating in a pool at the base of a high waterfall. With careful detail, The Ghosts of Gombe reveals for the first time the full story of day-to-day life in Goodall's wilderness camp--the people and the animals, the stresses and excitements, the social conflicts and cultural alignments, and the astonishing friendships that developed between three of the researchers and some of the chimpanzees--during the months preceding that tragic event. Was Ruth's death an accident? Did she jump? Was she pushed? In an extended act of literary forensics, Goodall biographer Dale Peterson examines how Ruth's death might have happened and explores some of the painful sequelae that haunted two of the survivors for the rest of their lives.

From the Back Cover

"This brilliant narrative will haunt you. Dale Peterson has brought to life the Gombe of the late 1960's, describing the entwined lives of the chimpanzees and the people studying them. It's a true story of adventure, danger, and sudden death that makes compelling reading."--Jane Goodall, founder of the Gombe Stream Research Centre, author of The Chimpanzees of Gombe, In the Shadow of Man, and Reason for Hope

"Not only does Dale Peterson give us a vivid and insightful account of two years at the most scientifically pivotal field camp in history, but his masterful storytelling reveals both the humans and the chimpanzees at Gombe to be compelling and quirky characters. If you care about animals and the people who study them, you must read this book."--Sy Montgomery, author of The Soul of an Octopus and The Good Good Pig

"The Ghosts of Gombe is at once a gripping story, a riveting mystery, and a dramatic portrait of life at Jane Goodall's chimpanzee research camp in East Africa during the late 1960s. There is nothing like it anywhere."--Marc Bekoff, coauthor of The Animals' Agenda: Freedom, Compassion, and Coexistence in the Human Age

"The mysterious death of a young American woman propelled Peterson into this investigation of the making of one of the Western world's great scientific achievements. His story of dedication, inspiration, and occasional naïvete and confusion among Jane Goodall's research team of volunteers, students, and young scientists during the 1960s might sound like fiction, but The Ghosts of Gombe is as absorbing and authentic as it is original."--Richard Wrangham, author of Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human

Review Quotes

"An impressively informative and inherently fascinating read from cover to cover, "The Ghosts of Gombe: A True Story of Love and Death in an African Wilderness" is an extraordinary and unique study that is exceptionally well written, organized and presented... especially and unreservedly recommended for both community and academic library collections."-- "Midwest Review of Books"

"It's challenging to put together a complete picture so long after they happened, but Peterson uses letters, camp records, and personal accounts to tell the story artfully... Jane Goodall has spent a lifetime trying to understand the behaviors and relationships of the apes in Tanzania. With The Ghosts of Gombe, Dale Peterson has attempted to do the same for the people who made her research possible. It is the similarities between these two endeavors that make his book a worthwhile read."-- "Science"

"Jane Goodall's research center on the shores of a Tanzanian lake pulsates with the passions, perils, and promises of the 1960s in Dale Peterson's The Ghosts of Gombe."-- "Foreword"

"Peterson has written an engaging and thoughtful account of a little-known period of Gombe history."-- "Primates"

"Peterson's engrossing, sometimes dizzyingly kaleidoscopic narrative is bookended by nuanced analyses of how Davis might have died, and the aftershocks that still rock those who knew her best."-- "Nature"

"Peterson's work is a must-read for those interested in Jane Goodall's work and primate research in general."-- "Tulsa Book Review"

About the Author

Dale Peterson is the author or editor of twenty books, including Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man, Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence (coauthored with Richard Wrangham), The Moral Lives of Animals, and Eating Apes.