Gorillas in the Mist Read Online Free PDF

before any of the African material found a publisher. Eventually, the Louisville
Courier Journal’s
weekend color supplement printed stories and photos by Dian on the gorillas; on her meeting with the celebrated paleoanthropologist, Louis Leakey, at Olduvai; and on other aspects of the safari. When she received her first check, for one hundred dollars, she was so proud that she photographed herself holding it and sent the picture to her mother in California.
    With the publication of the safari articles, Dian became a minor celebrity in Louisville.
    Next Saturday night I have to go to Jim and Ann Pope’s house for dinner with my safari movies to show the mayor, the Louisville zoo director, and others. I’m a bit nervous that the zoo director will detect my ignorance. At any rate, I have my new suit and pearls, so at least I’ll look all right if I call a kongoni a hartebeest.
    Dian’s rejections by national publications made her realize that her writing was not up to professional standards, so she enrolled in the Famous Writer’s School, a correspondence course fronted by well-known American authors.
    Applying her lessons diligently, she began a novel for young people, set in Africa.
    When her friend Mary White asked how it was going, Dian replied glumly, “The keys are sticking from my sweat dripping on them, and I’m trying desperately to finish the stupid thing before it finishes me!”
    She eventually sent the manuscript to the Doubleday publishing company and with a delirious sense of freedom went back to helping on the farm in her spare time and running through the fields playing with the dogs.
    At Christmas, Alexie turned down Dian’s invitation to return to Louisville. She was furious and spent the holidays with her parents in California, doing a slow burn. On her return:
    I collected the mail, which included two pious “forgive me”-type letters from Alexie. Then a phone call, andanother lo-o-ong letter. He is coming, finally, on the twenty-eighth for four days. Just between us, I shall be very happy to see him, but I hope I don’t show it!
    And after the visit:
    Yes, Alexie now says he wants to marry me. I am adamant, though, about waiting until my African safari debt is paid off, and that is another seventeen months and fifteen days away. A lot can happen in that time, but it is a chance we both have to take.
    Doubleday’s response to her manuscript arrived. The editors felt her book should be directed to the adult market so she could take fuller advantage of the wealth of material.
    “With due respect to their opinions,” she told a friend, “I can’t see why the book can’t sell to both the juvenile and adult markets. I refuse to drop my characters—they’re a product of my Smith Corona womb and just can’t be aborted now.”
    Doubleday advised they were returning the manuscript with a draft of suggested revisions. However, the changes asked for were so extensive that she lost hope and abandoned the book.
    Dian had almost given up again on Alexie Forrester when he wrote to say that his mother was coming to the United States and was eager to meet her parents.
    This announcement came on such short notice that by the time Dian could call and warn her mother, the Countess Forrester had already arrived in San Francisco—with Alexie in tow. Mrs. Price was in a frenzy.
    “I would have liked to entertain them properly,” she wailed, “but how can I with so little time?”
    “You don’t have to do anything special,” Dian told her.
    “I presume since they’re coming here your friend must have serious intentions?”
    “That’s difficult to know.”
    “Then what is this all about?”
    “Don’t take it so seriously, Mother. Mrs. Forrester has a sisterin San Francisco, a Roman Catholic nun, and she’s probably going mainly to see her.”
    Alexie and his mother arrived at the Prices’ home for dinner, accompanied by Sister Maura, a senior administrator in the California Catholic school