Discipline: Literature

Joy Adamson

Discipline: Literature
MacDowell Fellowships: 1964
More: www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Joy_Adamson
Joy Adamson (1910-1980) was born in Austria-Hungary but spent most of her life in Africa, where the wildlife and environment inspired her work. Beginning her artistic career drawing and painting, she later took up the pen. Her most famous work, Born Free, detailed her experiences raising a young lion cub, Elsa, with her husband. The book was later turned into a hit film. She also worked as an activist, even founding a wildlife refuge in Kenya. She continued her work until 1980, when she was tragically murdered by her former employee.