A short life of the author
Dian Fossey (1932–1985) was an American primatologist who devoted her life to the study and protection of mountain gorillas in the Virunga volcanic mountains of central Africa. Inspired by a 1963 trip to East Africa and by Louis Leakey — who recruited her as he had recruited Jane Goodall for chimpanzees and Biruté Galdikas for orangutans — Fossey established the Karisoke Research Center in 1967 in what was then Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) and later moved it to Rwanda. She habituated gorilla groups to human presence through patient, years-long observation, and her work fundamentally changed the scientific understanding of gorilla social structure and behaviour.
Gorillas in the Mist
Gorillas in the Mist (1983, Houghton Mifflin) is Fossey’s only book — part scientific memoir, part conservation polemic. It chronicles her thirteen years at Karisoke, describing individual gorillas (Digit, Uncle Bert, Peanuts) with vivid specificity and documenting the threats of poaching, habitat loss, and political instability. The book became a bestseller and was adapted into a 1988 film starring Sigourney Weaver.
Fossey was murdered at Karisoke on December 26, 1985, found in her cabin with a machete wound to her head. No one was conclusively convicted. The murder made her a global symbol of the cost of conservation work, though it also intensified debates about her increasingly confrontational methods — she had burned poachers’ camps, taken hostages, and clashed with Rwandan authorities.
Collecting Fossey
Gorillas in the Mist (1983, Houghton Mifflin, Boston) is the sole collectible title. First editions in fine condition with dust jacket bring $100–$400. Signed copies are rare — Fossey spent most of her adult life at a remote mountain research station — and command $1,000+. The UK edition (Hodder & Stoughton, 1983) is also collected. Fossey’s correspondence and field notes, held partly by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, occasionally surface at auction.