Wildflower: An Extraordinary Life and Untimely Death in Africa
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Mark Seal. (2009). Wildflower: An Extraordinary Life and Untimely Death in Africa. Random House Publishing Group.

Mark Seal. 2009. Wildflower: An Extraordinary Life and Untimely Death in Africa. Random House Publishing Group.

Mark Seal, Wildflower: An Extraordinary Life and Untimely Death in Africa. Random House Publishing Group, 2009.

Mark Seal. Wildflower: An Extraordinary Life and Untimely Death in Africa. Random House Publishing Group, 2009.

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Wildflower

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Wildflower An Extraordinary Life and Untimely Death in Africa

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An Extraordinary Life and Untimely Death in Africa

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1. • value: Animals
2. • value: life story
3. • value: Africa
4. • value: Biography
5. • value: true life
6. • value: non fiction
7. • value: Conservation
8. • value: BIOS
9. • value: Nonfiction
10. • value: memories
11. • value: true story
12. • value: Inspirational
13. • value: inspiration
14. • value: Advice
15. • value: Life Stories
16. • value: biographies
17. • value: Kenya
18. • value: narrative nonfiction
19. • value: Motivational
20. • value: personal story
21. • value: True stories
22. • value: personal stories
23. • value: Biographical
24. • value: inspirational books
25. • value: motivational books
26. • value: non fiction books
27. • value: nonfiction books
28. • value: personal life
29. • value: autobiography biography
30. • value: biography autobiography
31. • value: memoirs biographies
32. • value: biography and memoirs
33. • value: auto biography biography
34. • value: memoir autobiography biography

creators

1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Seal, Mark
   • bioText: Mark Seal has been a journalist for more than thirty years. Currently a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, he has written for many major magazines and served as a collaborator on almost twenty nonfiction books. Although he has written thousands of stories, Seal says none has struck a chord with readers more than the story of the incredible life and brutal death of Joan Root, which he originally reported in the August 2006 issue of Vanity Fair. He lives in Aspen, Colorado.
   • name: Mark Seal

imprint

Random House

publishDate

2009-05-26T00:00:00-04:00

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title

Wildflower

fullDescription

With compassion and an unswerving regard for the truth, veteran journalist Mark Seal lays bare the deeply moving, inspirational story of Joan Root, a dedicated environmentalist and Oscar-nominated wildlife filmmaker. He covers her early days in Kenya as a shy young woman with an almost uncanny ability to connect to animals; her whirlwind courtship with the dashing Alan Root, their marriage, and the twenty years of nonstop adventure and passionate romance that followed, both in Africa and around the world; the shattering disintegration of the marriage and partnership; and Joan’s triumphant struggle to reinvent herself as the protector of her lakeshore community’s fragile ecosystem—a struggle that would lead to her tragic death in January 2006. Joan Root dreamed of a bright future for Kenya, a country blessed with unmatched beauty but scarred by decades of colonization and a culture of corruption. She spent her life fighting to make that dream a reality. Her life ended too soon, but “thanks to Seal’s meticulous re-creation, her extraordinary life lives on.” (People, four-star review)

reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: People
   • content:

     Praise for WILDFLOWER "[A] richly detailed portrait... Thanks to Seal's meticulous recreation, [Joan Root's] extraordinary life lives on."

2. • premium: False
   • source: Vogue
   • content: "Exhilaratingly close-range biography."
3. • premium: False
   • source: Los Angeles Times Magazine
   • content: "Full of letters and diary entries, [Wildflower]...boils over with romance and adventure. The film rights have been optioned by Julia Roberts' production company. But don't wait for the movie--grab this compelling story as soon as it hits store shelves."
4. • premium: False
   • source: Good Housekeeping
   • content: "Deaturing an extraordinary real-life heroine, exotic settings, a love triangle, and a mysterious death, Seal's riveting portrayal of famous wildlife filmmaker Joan root is not to be missed."
5. • premium: False
   • source: Library Journal ( starred review)
   • content: "[This is a great story built from many interviews of friends and family and from Root's extensive diaries and letters. What an adventure! What an example! Highly recommended. [Film rights were sold to Julia Roberts]."
6. • premium: False
   • source: Publishers Weekly
   • content: "Sweeping and atmospheric... Seal's effort is a seamless story redolent with adventure, passion and heartbreak; its beauty nearly eclipses the tragedy of Root's untimely--and unsolved--death in 2006."
7. • premium: False
   • source: Kirkus Reviews
   • content: "Zesty biography of wildlife documentarian and conservationist Joan Root... Transports readers into the midst of an incandescent, doomed life."
8. • premium: False
   • source: Celebrated Living, The Luxury Magazine For American Airlines Premium Class Passengers
   • content: "A moving tale."
9. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     April 13, 2009
     Vanity Fair
     contributing editor Seal expands on his August 2006 article for the magazine in this sweeping and atmospheric biography of the conservationist and wildlife filmmaker Joan Root, who was brutally murdered in her home on Lake Naivasha, Kenya, a region she was trying to save from poachers and environmental ruin. Intrigued by Root's suspicious death and cinematic life with husband and nature documentarian Alan Root, Seal mines Joan's diaries and writings to offer a lush love story set in the heyday of British colonialism in Nairobi, where amid the decadence and dilettantism, Alan fell in love with the lovely Joan Thorpe, an “Ingrid Bergman lookalike” and daughter of an English adventurer. Their partnership produced award-winning documentaries (their 1978 film on termite mounds, Mysterious Castles of Clay
     , was narrated by Orson Welles and nominated for an Oscar) and television specials. Their inability to have children was a source of constant sorrow for the couple, and despite the romance of their joint pursuits, their marriage unraveled. Seal's effort is a seamless story redolent with adventure, passion and heartbreak; its beauty nearly eclipses the tragedy of Root's untimely—and unsolved—death in 2006. Photos.

10. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      May 1, 2009
      Zesty biography of wildlife documentarian and conservationist Joan Root (1937–2006).
      
      By the time Alan and Joan Root's marriage ended in 1981, they had gained renown as documentary filmmakers of Africa's fauna—or rather Alan had, as Vanity Fair contributing editor Seal makes clear. Spouting ideas and exuding reckless energy, Alan was the kind of gentleman who tended to hog all the oxygen, while shy, retiring Joan sturdily managed their affairs and the support side of the operation. ("You were the wind beneath my wings," he admitted in a letter after their divorce.) But she would involuntarily steal the headlines in 2006 when she was shot to death in her home in Kenya, perhaps by robbers, perhaps by people angered by her strong stand against poaching and pollution. To make sense of that unsolved crime, Seal offers a detailed look at Root's life. The author talked extensively with her former husband and had access to a trove of Joan's diaries and letters (many unsent to Alan). Limning the Roots' marriage and professional collaboration, Seal captures both the extraordinary quality of their work and Joan's personality—specifically her attraction to her emotional opposite in Alan and her depression when he left. Seal expertly draws out the drama of the Roots' days afield,"being chased, mauled, bitten, gored, and stung by every conceivable creature as they drove, flew, ran, and swam across Africa," filming as they went. Even more compelling is the author's portrait of the years Joan spent alone on the shores of Kenya's Lake Naivasha, her fortitude in trying to protect the ecologically fragile area from poaching and illegal fishing and the fallout of the flower industry that sprang up on its shore. These were complex issues that braided social, economic and cultural factors, further fraught by Joan's relationship with a poacher.
      
      Transports readers into the midst of an incandescent, doomed life.

      (COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

11. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      Starred review from May 15, 2009
      Seal, a contributing editor at "Vanity Fair" and a journalist for 34 years, expands on his portrait of British naturalist and filmmaker Joan Root, which appeared in the August 2006 issue of "Vanity Fair" following her brutal murder at her Kenyan farmhouse. Seal gives us the sad details up front and then leads us, gently and sensitively, through the story of this shy yet remarkable woman. The films she made with husband Alan Root became international hits, and one, "Mysterious Castles of Clay", was nominated for an Academy Award in 1978. After her divorce, Joan Root became an ardent conservationist who fought poaching and illegal fishing on Lake Navaisha, a passion that may have led to her death. This is a great story built from many interviews of friends and family and from Root's extensive diaries and letters. What an adventure! What an example! Highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 2/1/09; film rights were sold to Julia Roberts.Ed.]Margaret F. Dominy, Drexel Univ. Lib., Philadelphia

      Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

12. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      Starred review from June 1, 2009
      Kenyan conservationist and wildlife filmmaker Joan Thorpe Root lived a trailblazing life, but sadly it was her death that initially drew journalist Seals attention. Murdered in her home in January 2006, Root joined the tragic list of slain African wildlife champions that includes Dian Fossey and Joy and George Adamson of Born Free fame. In this riveting portrait, Seal incisively tracks Joans affinity for the wild from her birth in Nairobi in 1932 to helping her intrepid father manage Kenyas first photo safaris, to her risky work with her husband, the innovative filmmaker and infamous daredevil Alan Root. Lovely, shy, and unflappable, Joan did everything from organizing their ambitious expeditions to dancing in front of a spitting cobra so Alan could film an attack. The messy end of their marriage was devastating to Joan, as was the environmental nightmare that engulfed her cherished home and animal refuge on Lake Naivasha, as Kenyas flower industry consumed and polluted the landscape and poachers decimated fish and wildlife. Joan struggled heroically to protect this precious ecosystem but became ensnared in a net of social crises and crime. Seals gripping chronicle ofnaturalist Rootslife ofadventure andloss, beauty and brutality, is fascinating on many fronts and will remain in demand with a movie version on the horizon.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

popularity

22

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shortDescription

With compassion and an unswerving regard for the truth, veteran journalist Mark Seal lays bare the deeply moving, inspirational story of Joan Root, a dedicated environmentalist and Oscar-nominated wildlife filmmaker. He covers her early days in Kenya as a shy young woman with an almost uncanny ability to connect to animals; her whirlwind courtship with the dashing Alan Root, their marriage, and the twenty years of nonstop adventure and passionate romance that followed, both in Africa and around the world; the shattering disintegration of the marriage and partnership; and Joan’s triumphant struggle to reinvent herself as the protector of her lakeshore community’s fragile ecosystem—a struggle that would lead to her tragic death in January 2006. Joan Root dreamed of a bright future for Kenya, a country blessed with unmatched beauty but scarred by decades of colonization and a culture of corruption. She spent her life fighting to make that dream a reality. Her life...

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1. • code: BIO026000
   • description: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Memoirs
2. • code: BIO030000
   • description: Biography & Autobiography / Environmentalists & Naturalists
3. • code: BIO032000
   • description: Biography & Autobiography / Social Activists