Jane Goodall was among the first to observe chimpanzees in the wild. She went to a place in Tanzania by the Gombe Stream, along with her mother, and just watched and followed the animals until she had learned about them. And then she kept on doing that, gradually gaining a staff and buildings and then other scientists and students. In the Shadow of Man tells about her early days with the chimpanzees and includes many details of what life in Gombe was like, and the personal adventures she had, alongside the adventures of the chimpanzees and the things she learned about them. I was so calmed reading the book because of Goodall's obviously vast stores of patience. She mentions early on how delighted she would be by one small discovery or one beautiful moment, and it is clear that she is willing to wait for those moments, whose coming of course she can neither predict nor depend on. She marries within the time the book covers, and has a baby, whom she raises keeping in mind the things she learned from the chimps: lots of contact in the first years of life, trying to distract from rather than punish bad behavior when the baby is too young to understand punishment. The baby has to be kept in a cage so that the chimpanzees won't try to eat him. Partly the book is an adventure story, but the way Goodall writes it all seems very natural and steady--not wild or moody. I think for this reason I feel a sort of domesticated peace, reading the book, a kind of anticipation of contentment, a desire to be practical and steady and hard-working.
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