Joy Adamson

Joy Adamson
Adamson with Elsa the lioness, autumn 1960
Adamson with Elsa the lioness, autumn 1960[1]
Born
Friederike Victoria Gessner

(1910-01-20)20 January 1910
Troppau - today ´s Opava, Austrian Silesia, Austria-Hungary (now Opava, Czech Republic)
Died3 January 1980(1980-01-03) (aged 69)
Shaba National Reserve, Kenya
Cause of deathHomicide
Resting placeMeru National Park
Occupations
  • Naturalist
  • Artist
  • Author
Spouses
Sir Viktor Von Klarwill
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(m. 1935; div. 1937)​
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(m. 1938; div. 1944)​
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(m. 1944; sep. 1970)​
Writing career
LanguageEnglish
Period1960–1980
GenreNonfiction
SubjectsAnimals, African culture, nature
Years active1960–1980
Notable workBorn Free
Literature portal

Friederike Victoria "Joy" Adamson (née Gessner; 20 January 1910 – 3 January 1980) was a naturalist, artist and author. Her book, Born Free, describes her experiences raising a lion cub named Elsa. Born Free was printed in several languages and made into an Academy Award-winning movie of the same name. In 1977, she was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art.[2]

  1. ^ 'Elsa the Lioness'. BBC, 3 February 1961. Retrieved 19 September 2024
  2. ^ "Pride and Joy" (PDF). Africa Geographic. August 2009. p. 34. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 22 March 2013.