Savage Paradise: The Predators of Serengeti.

VAN LAWICK, Hugo [Peter Matthiessen].

Item Number: 142671

New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc, 1977.

First edition of Van Lawick’s monumental work, containing some of the best animal photographs ever published. Folio, original cloth, illustrated with 191 pages of photographs, 16 pages of black and white photographs and 18 pages of black and white mini-photos. From the library of Peter Matthiessen, although not marked. American writer Peter Matthiessen remains the only writer to have won the National Book Award in both nonfiction (The Snow Leopard, 1979) and fiction (Shadow Country, 2008). A prominent environmental activist, Matthiessen received the National Book Award for Fiction in 2008 at the age of 81 for Shadow Country. “No one writes more lyrically [than Matthiessen] about animals or describes more movingly the spiritual experience of mountaintops, savannas, and the sea” (Michael Dirda). Near fine in a near fine dust jacket.

Savage Paradise contains some of the best animal photographs ever published, illustrating the world of the African predators - lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, jackals, and wild dogs. To accompany this unique collection, van Lawick describes the animals pictured, as well as his life on the Serengeti. He blends entertaining anecdote, important new scientific material, and an almost miraculous understanding of the animals he studies.