Edward P. Bass Distinguished Lecture: "Homesick for a World Unknown" with Miriam Horn

Beginning in the 1950s with Congo's mountain gorillas, field biologist George Schaller revolutionized wildlife science by going to live with Earth’s most feared and revered creatures, from the great cats (tigers, lions, snow leopards, jaguars) to pandas, Tibetan brown bears, Gobi wild camels and many more. Before Jane Goodall or Dian Fossey, he was the first to reveal these primates and predators’ rich emotional and social lives, and to commit his science to ensuring their survival: studying whole ecosystems to understand the animals’ needs, helping to create national parks that together protect an area the size of France, and mentoring generations of biologists on four continents. Instrumental to those breakthroughs were the rigorous and beautiful field notes and journals Schaller kept every day for more than seven decades, preserving an hour-by-hour account of his acute perceptions, perilous adventures, political strategizing and closely guarded interior life. Entrusted to the Yale Peabody Museum, along with a century of correspondence and family albums, those archives proved indispensable to biographer Miriam Horn, whose Homesick for a World Unknown, The Life of George B. Schaller, was published in April by Penguin Press. In a talk illustrated with Schaller’s groundbreaking photographs and drawings – including the first-ever films shot of wild gorillas, also preserved at Yale—Horn will trace the dramatic story she spent eight years in the archives working to bring to light. Books will be for sale from 4 to 5 pm and Horn will be on hand for a signing from 4:15 pm to 4:45 pm. “Before Jane Goodall or Dian Fossey, he was the first to reveal these primates and predators’ rich emotional and social lives,” said Miriam Horn, author of Homesick for a World Unknown: The Life of George B. Schaller, the first biography of Schaller, the preeminent field biologist of the past century. Horn will offer a talk illustrated with Schaller’s groundbreaking photographs and drawings - including the first-ever films shot of wild gorillas, also preserved at Yale - tracting the dramatic story she spent eight years in the archives working to bring to light. Horn’s Edward P. Bass Distinguished Lecture will take place Wednesday, November 11 at 5 pm in O.C. Marsh Hall. The event is free and open to the public. The lecture is co-sponsored by the Yale Peabody Museum and the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies. Books will be on sale at the event. “Schaller committed his science to ensuring their survival: studying whole ecosystems to understand the animals’ needs, helping to create national parks that together protect an area the size of France, and mentoring generations of biologists on four continents,” Horn said. Instrumental to those breakthroughs were the rigorous and beautiful field notes and journals Schaller kept every day for more than seven decades, preserving an hour-by-hour account of his acute perceptions, perilous adventures, political strategizing and closely guarded interior life. Schaller’s field notes and journals were entrusted to the Yale Peabody Museum, along with a century of correspondence and family albums. Those archives proved indispensable to Horn, whose biography of Schaller, was published in April by Penguin Press. Horn is an author, environmental advocate, journalist and filmmaker. Her previous books include Rebels in White Gloves: Coming of Age with Hillary’s Class; the New York Times bestselling Earth: The Sequel: The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming; and Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman: Conservation Heroes of the American Heartland. Two were made into documentary films for the Discovery Channel, with Horn acting as producer, and a Sundance premiere. Horn spent fifteen years at the Environmental Defense Fund and six years at the U.S. Forest Service in Colorado, working on habitat conservation, landowner and community partnerships, and public education. Before joining EDF, she was a senior writer at U.S. News and World Report and freelanced for many years for the New York Times and other publications.