Joy Adamson Books

Joy Adamson (1910 - 1980) was born Friederike Victoria Gessner in Austria. She was a naturalist and author, best known for her book, 'Born Free', which described her experiences in raising Elsa from cub to lioness. She was the wife of game warden and PH, George Adamson who was her third husband. Joy Adamson was also an accomplished artist and many of her paintings are displayed in a museum in Nairobi.

Born Free: A Lioness Of Two Worlds by Joy Adamson (1960) is the story of Elsa the lioness in which Joy Adamson tells the extraordinary story of how she and her husband were able to rear an orphaned lion cub, not for a life of captivity, but for one of freedom and independence between two radically different worlds. Kindle Version

Elsa, The Story Of A Lioness by Joy Adamson (1961). This publication was produced in response to the requests to see the photographs not included in 'Born Free', although it does also include those that were. The book is more a photograph album with text.

Living Free: The Story Of Elsa And Her Cubs by Joy Adamson (1961) is the sequel to Born Free. The astonishing story of Elsa and her unique friendship with Joy Adamson. Living Free is a vivid, day-to-day record of the development of this friendship, from the time of Elsa's mating with a wild lion until her cubs are one year old.

Forever Free: Elsa's Pride by Joy Adamson (1962) is a third volume about Elsa the lioness.

The Spotted Sphinx: The Story Of Pippa The Cheetah by Joy Adamson (1969) is the story of Pippa, a domesticated cheetah and her return to the bush and her life there for the next three years.

Pippa's Challenge by Joy Adamson (1972). Pippa and her descendants are the chief characters of this book, which proves that a wild cheetah which has been tamed, can not only be rehabilitated to its heritage in the bush, but can breed,

Pippa The Cheetah And Her Cubs by Joy Adamson (1970)

Queen Of Shaba: The Story Of An African Leopard by Joy Adamson (1980) is Joy Adamson's last book about her efforts to rear a young leopard cub and return her to the wild.

The Searching Spirit: An Autobiography by Joy Adamson (1978) is her autobiography. 'A day in the bush is never dull', writes Joy Adamson. Nor, says Elspeth Huxley, in her foreword, is a page in her autobiography.

Friends From The Forest by Joy Adamson (1980) are nature studies of Colobus monkeys and Verreaux's eagle owls.

The Peoples Of Kenya by Joy Adamson (1975) portrays in water-colors, photographs and words, the rich variety of a rapidly disappearing way of life.

Joy Adamson's Africa by Joy Adamson (1972). This lavishly illustrated volume reveals the scope of the author's interests and achievements as a wood carver, flower painter, portraitist of birds, fish, insects, animals and people.

Books About Joy Adamson

George Adamson

My Pride And Joy: An Autobiography by George Adamson (1986) is the story of his life. When his wife Joy wrote about the lioness Elsa in the book Born Free, the world was amazed. The story that George Adamson tells is infinitely more astonishing, for his life among the birds and animals of the African bush, has been one of excitement, often danger and, above all, of lions.

Caroline Cass

Joy Adamson: Behind The Mask by Caroline Cass (1992) is a biography of one of Kenya's best-known conservationists. Cass looks at the woman behind the myth, examining Adamson's relationships with her husbands, lovers and the lioness Elsa, to reveal a passionate, temperamental and controversial woman.

Adrian House

The Great Safari: The Lives Of George And Joy Adamson by Adrian House (1993) is a double biography of both the Adamsons by the editor of their books for 30 years.

Anne E Niemark

Wild Heart: The Story Of Joy Adamson, Author of Born Free by Anne E Niemark (1999) is a biography of Joy Adamson.