Elizabeth Hess
An experiment that changed the lives of all it touched
as a family tries to raise a chimpanzee as if human.
as a family tries to raise a chimpanzee as if human.
Catch the newly released film Project Nim based on the Book The Chimp Who Would be Human
- How is language acquired? Nim Chimpsky was to be raised in a human family and taught American Sign Language -- this would challenge the idea that only humans use language, and blur or erase the line between human and nonhuman. But the study also created a chimpanzee with a foot in both worlds, neither fully chimp nor fully human, which further created a challenge for all of Nim's caretakers and Nim's own quality of life.
- Elizabeth Hess recounts his story, both moving and entertaining, raising the most profound questions of what it means to be human - and about what we owe to the animals who enrich our lives.
“Clear, lively, and gently sorrowful biography…Keep your eye on the chimpanzee and you’ll miss Hess’s acute study of animal behavior among academics, complete with rivalries, power plays, couplings, and aggression just short of hurling fences.”
-- Entertainment Weekly
“One of the most memorable and intelligent recent books about animal-human interaction… This may well be the only book on linguistics and primatology that will leave its readers in tears over the life and times of its amazing subject.”
-- Publishers Weekly
