The directory «Plots»

Fossey Dian
(1932—1985)
«Gorillas in the Mist»

Dian Fossey was an American zoologist who undertook an extensive study of gorilla groups over a period of 18 years. She studied them daily in the mountain forests of Rwanda, initially encouraged to work there by famous anthropologist Louis Leakey. She was murdered in 1985; the case remains open.

Called one of the foremost primatologists in the world while she was alive, Fossey, along with Jane Goodall and Birutė Galdikas, was part of the so-called Leakey's Angels, a group of three prominent researchers on primates (Fossey on gorillas; Goodall on chimpanzees; and Galdikas on orangutans) sent by archaeologist Louis Leakey to study great apes in their natural environments.

Mowat's Virunga, whose British and U.S. editions are called Woman in the Mist 'The Story of Dian Fossey and the Mountain Gorillas of Africa', was the first book-length biography of Fossey, and it serves as an insightful counterweight to the many omissions in Fossey's own story, being derived from Fossey's actual letters and entries in her journals.

A new book published in 2005 by National Geographic in the United States and Palazzo Editions in the United Kingdom as No One Loved Gorillas More, written by Camilla de la Bedoyere. Dreams: The Legacy of Dian Fossey was published, written by the investigative journalist Georgianne Nienaber. This fictional account is a romanticized fantasy of Fossey's story told as if in her own words from beyond the grave.

More recently, the Kentucky Opera Visions Program, in Louisville, has written an opera about Fossey. The opera, entitled Nyiramachabelli, premiered on May 23, 2006.

Harold Hayes' book The Dark Romance of Dian Fossey was published in 1989 after extensive interviews with people who lived and worked with Fossey. Haye’s revealing book shows Fossey candidly, flaws and all, in a less romanticized light than previous accounts, including details about her abuse of alcohol and problematic relationships with people. The film "Gorillas in the Mist" was based on Hayes' 1987 article in Life magazine, as cited in the film's credits, instead of Fossey self-edited autobiography by that title.

Fossey is also prominently featured in a book by the Vanity Fair journalist Alex Shoumatoff called African Madness, in which the author expands on Fossey's controversial behaviors, implying that Fossey provoked her own murder by way of her private and public inflammatory interactions with people.

Lesotho, 1991, Gorillas in the Mist

Palau, 1999, Dian Fossey