Beschreibung:

ARCHIVE OF CORRESPONDENCE OF LEAKEY AND FOSSEY REGARDING FOSSEY’S RESEARCH IN RWANDA. 1. 11 Typed Letters Signed (“Louis Leakey” and “Louis”), 15 pp, 4to, Nairobi, Kenya, November 3, 1966 to November 2, 1967, to Leighton Wilkie, regarding his efforts to raise funding for Dian Fossey’s research with Mountain Gorillas and reporting on her progress, several letters with 1 and 2-page transcripts from Fossey’s letters to Leakey, leaves creased and toned, many with carbons of Wilkie’s responses affixed. Together with "An Early Miocene Member of Hominidae." Offprint from Nature, Vol. 213, No. 5072 (January 14, 1967): pp 155-163. Inscribed at upper right: "For Leighton Wilkie / all my best wishes / Louis / May 17, 1967." Dian Fossey was the second of "Leakey’s Angels," women he personally selected to perform field research on primates. When looking for financing for the Fossey project, Leakey turned to the man who had first provided seed money for Jane Goodall’s work six years earlier, Leighton Wilkie. From November 3, 1966, Leakey writes: "You will, I am sure, remember that many years ago you afforded me invaluable help in the way of a grant, to enable me to get the Chimpanzee Research, by Jane Goodall, started … I am also wondering whether you would be willing to help me launch a similar piece of research in respect of the Mountain Gorilla … I have now found what I believe to be an indubitably suitable candidate, and I am anxious to get her launched into the field to study Mountain Gorilla as soon as possible, and I am wondering whether you will be willing to help us with a grant in aid." The November 3 letter also includes a 2 pp typed copy of Fossey’s research proposal, including itinerary, purpose, and study techniques. As with Goodall, the Wilkie Brothers Foundation agreed to sponsor Fossey, and in the year that follows, Leakey provides Wilkie with updates on Fossey’s research, even as he continues to ask Wilkie for more funding. 2. 2 Autograph Letters Signed and 12 Typed Letters Signed ("Dian Fossey" and "Dian"), 19 pp recto and verso, mostly 4to, [Rwanda], November 22, 1966 to May 6, 1984, to Leighton Wilkie, some creasing and toning, secretarial notations throughout. Together with 41 photographs, 3½ by 5 inches, most in color but a few in black and white, taken by Dian Fossey and others, including images of the Mountain Gorillas, the area surrounding her research camp, other wildlife, poachers, and Fossey and her fellow researchers, nearly all annotated on the verso in Fossey’s hand identifying subjects, together with several copies of photos, presumably made by Wilkie. Fossey writes amusing, vivid letters to her patron Leighton Wilkie, describing in great depth the activities at the Karisoke Research Center. From May 25, 1967: "Not too long ago one of the silverbacks decided to eradicate me and came charging down the hill without warning (this is one of the differences between a bluff charge and a real charge) like a runaway locomotive. I remember looking up at his long canines and thinking, this isn’t supposed to happen … I tried to turn him with my voice, but it was drowned out by his screams. So, despite what Dr. Leakey said about ‘holding your ground’ and despite the fact that I remembered Jane Goodall held her ground when ‘attacked’ by a chimp, I took a swift and ungainly nosedive into the nearest clump of foliage just as he whizzed by.” From April 23, 1968: "Today’s contact with Group 8 was exceptional in that the young blackback, Peanuts, advanced within 3’ and picked up one of my gloves to examine and smell. The fact that he discarded it somewhat disdainfully after a prolonged sniff didn’t seem insulting at all for I was thrill beyond words at his acceptance of human intrusion and at his curiosity." Next letter, dated May 4, 1968, contains a handwritten update on Peanuts: "Peanuts … reached over to my shoelace and ‘plucked’ at it—it was really a big moment after all these months!" Fossey’s correspondence details the