In the deep, dark jungle, a baby elephant is born, and her mother names her Tambo. Her large, loving family watches over her and keeps her safe. But one day, Tambo wanders away from her herd. An adventurous sort, she follows a beautiful butterfly through the jungle. Tambo realizes she is lost and tries to find her way home. Suddenly, she steps on a twig and finds herself caught deep in a poachers trap. As Tambo cries for help, two village children discover the elephant in the trap. They run to the village to get help. Tambo is so happy to be free and back home with her herd. She and the children will always be special friends.

Through the lens of Rowe's relationships with two Kenyan conservationistsWangari Maathai and Daphne Sheldrickthis book surveys a number of prejudices that many of us who are fortunate to be born with the privileges attached to our skin color, sex, and access to resources don't like to deal with: race, misogyny, and the legacy of empire. By examining the two women's memoirs (Unbowed and Love, Life, and Elephants), both of which were launched following talks at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, these metaphorical elephants in the room are combined with a study of the exploitation of actual elephants on the continent of Africa, and the iterations of memory that are disclosed or hidden in the writing of memoirs and the collecting of bones for museums.

Aristotle characterized the elephant as “the beast which passeth all others in wit and mind” and the animal has long figured in cultural artifacts, even on continents it has never inhabited. Now Elephant provides an engaging look at the elephant’s long legacy. The image of the elephant can be found throughout world cultures as a symbol of intelligence, strength, and loyalty. Wylie draws on a rich array of examples to document that symbolic power, ranging from symbols of the Hindu god of wisdom, Ganesh, to the beloved children’s works Dumbo and Babar the Elephant. Turning to the elephant’s biological history, Wylie describes the three remaining species—the African Bush Elephant, African Forest Elephant, and the Asian Elephant—and the controversial efforts for elephant conservation. With ivory poaching and human encroachment into the animal’s natural habitats, Wylie argues that we face a uniquely poignant conservation crisis in which elephants and humans both unsustainably consume limited natural resources. A compelling new entry in the Animal series, Elephant will be necessary for every animal lover’s bookshelf.

Why have elephants—and our preconceptions about them—been central to so much of human thought? From prehistoric cave drawings in Europe and ancient rock art in Africa and India to burning pyres of confiscated tusks, our thoughts about elephants tell a story of human history. In Elephant Trails, Nigel Rothfels argues that, over millennia, we have made elephants into both monsters and miracles as ways to understand them but also as ways to understand ourselves. Drawing on a broad range of sources, including municipal documents, zoo records, museum collections, and encounters with people who have lived with elephants, Rothfels seeks out the origins of our contemporary ideas about an animal that has been central to so much of human thought. He explains how notions that have been associated with elephants for centuries—that they are exceptionally wise, deeply emotional, and have a special understanding of death; that they never forget, are beloved of the gods, and suffer unusually in captivity; and even that they are afraid of mice—all tell part of the story of these amazing beings. Exploring the history of a skull in a museum, a photograph of an elephant walking through the American South in the early twentieth century, the debate about the quality of life of a famous elephant in a zoo, and the accounts of elephant hunters, Rothfels demonstrates that elephants are not what we think they are—and they never have been. Elephant Trails is a compelling portrait of what the author terms "our elephant."

A biography of the charismatic world traveler whose daredevil exploits thrilled millions in the early twentieth century. Born in 1900, Richard Halliburton ran away from his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, at the age of nineteen to lead an extraordinary and dramatic life of adventure. Against the backdrop of the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression, Halliburton’s exploits around the globe made him an internationally known celebrity and the most famous travel writer of his time. From climbing Mount Olympus in Greece to swimming the Panama Canal and flying all the way to Timbuktu, Halliburton experienced and wrote about adventures that others never even believed possible. His youthful spirit and bohemian lifestyle won the hearts of millions, and this absorbing biography tells his story. “He was Marco Polo and Indiana Jones wrapped up in one, with P.T. Barnum’s flippancy and James Bond’s bravado, capped off by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s aristocratic good looks and manners.” —Smithsonian “A concise new biography [that] covers the life of a man of marvels.” —Memphis Magazine

Reproduction of the original: Adventures of Hans Sterk by Captain A.W. Drayson

Adventures of Hans Sterk by Alfred W. Drayson is an adventure tale starring the "Great White Hunter" in the 1800s in South Africa. Follow Bernhard, Hans, and the rest of the Dutch hunters as they hunt elephants, lions, and buffaloes. Excerpt: "Near the outskirts of a far-extending African forest, and close beside some deep shady pools, the only remnants of a once rapidly flowing river, were seen one glowing summer's evening..."