Adamson, Joy (1910-1980), was a wildlife conservationist and author who won wide recognition for her observations on animal behavior in Africa. She is best known for her books Born Free (1960), Living Free (1961), and Forever Free (1962), in which she describes the life of the lioness Elsa. Elsa was raised in the Adamson household. She was then trained to survive in the wild by Adamson and her husband, George Adamson, a wildlife conservationist and game warden. The movie Born Free (1966), based on Joy Adamson’s books, helped spread her message of concern for wildlife.
Joy-Friederike Victoria Gessner was born on Jan. 20, 1910, in Troppau, Silesia (now Opava, the Czech Republic). She went to Kenya at the age of 27, where she married George Adamson and lived for the rest of her life. They acquired Elsa after George had shot a lioness, Elsa’s mother, in self-defense. They took Elsa and the lioness’s two other orphaned cubs into their home. The couple trained Elsa to develop her natural hunting skills so that she could survive on her own. After her release into the wild, Elsa found a mate and raised three cubs.
The Adamsons were among the first conservationists to train a captive animal to establish its wild nature. They also worked to control poaching, the illegal killing of animals to obtain animal skins or the ivory of elephant tusks. In addition to living closely with lions, the Adamsons had similar experiences with cheetahs and leopards. Joy Adamson reported on these experiences in her books The Spotted Sphinx (1969), Pippa’s Challenge (1972), Joy Adamson’s Africa (1972), and Queen of Shaba (1980). She also wrote an autobiography, The Searching Spirit (1978). On Jan. 3, 1980, she died of stab wounds inflicted by a former employee. George Adamson, who worked for Kenya’s wildlife department, was fatally shot by poachers on Aug. 20, 1989.
