The Lady and the Panda: The True Adventures of the First American Explorer to Bring Back China's Most Exotic Animal | 
 enlarge | Author: Vicki Croke
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 158907
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5 x 1
ISBN: 0375759700
Dewey Decimal Number: 599.789092
EAN: 9780375759703
ASIN: 0375759700
Publication Date: June 13, 2006
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Condition: Pages and cover are clean and crisp with reading and shelf wear. Ships next business day, bubble cushioned and email confirmation.
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Product Description
Here is the astonishing true story of Ruth Harkness, the Manhattan bohemian socialite who, against all but impossible odds, trekked to Tibet in 1936 to capture the most mysterious animal of the day: a bear that had for countless centuries lived in secret in the labyrinth of lonely cold mountains. In The Lady and the Panda, Vicki Constantine Croke gives us the remarkable account of Ruth Harkness and her extraordinary journey, and restores Harkness to her rightful place along with Sacajawea, Nellie Bly, and Amelia Earhart as one of the great woman adventurers of all time.
Ruth was the toast of 1930s New York, a dress designer newly married to a wealthy adventurer, Bill Harkness. Just weeks after their wedding, however, Bill decamped for China in hopes of becoming the first Westerner to capture a giant panda–an expedition on which many had embarked and failed miserably. Bill was also to fail in his quest, dying horribly alone in China and leaving his widow heartbroken and adrift. And so Ruth made the fateful decision to adopt her husband’s dream as her own and set off on the adventure of a lifetime.
It was not easy. Indeed, everything was against Ruth Harkness. In decadent Shanghai, the exclusive fraternity of white male explorers patronized her, scorned her, and joked about her softness, her lack of experience and money. But Ruth ignored them, organizing, outfitting, and leading a bare-bones campaign into the majestic but treacherous hinterlands where China borders Tibet. As her partner she chose Quentin Young, a twenty-two-year-old Chinese explorer as unconventional as she was, who would join her in a romance as torrid as it was taboo.
Traveling across some of the toughest terrain in the world–nearly impenetrable bamboo forests, slick and perilous mountain slopes, and boulder-strewn passages–the team raced against a traitorous rival, and was constantly threatened by hordes of bandits and hostile natives. The voyage took months to complete and cost Ruth everything she had. But when, almost miraculously, she returned from her journey with a baby panda named Su Lin in her arms, the story became an international sensation and made the front pages of newspapers around the world. No animal in history had gotten such attention. And Ruth Harkness became a hero.
Drawing extensively on American and Chinese sources, including diaries, scores of interviews, and previously unseen intimate letters from Ruth Harkness, Vicki Constantine Croke has fashioned a captivating and richly textured narrative about a woman ahead of her time. Part Myrna Loy, part Jane Goodall, by turns wisecracking and poetic, practical and spiritual, Ruth Harkness is a trailblazing figure. And her story makes for an unforgettable, deeply moving adventure.
From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 22 more reviews...
 I loved this book! January 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I loved this book! Adventure, history, romance, and the story of a
woman who was 70 years ahead of our own conservation movement. I had
heard of Ruth Harkness from George Schaller's book "The Last Panda," and
from a World Wildlife Fund web page, but the details of this
action-packed story blew me away. No wonder this book got the reviews it
did. Superbly written and a page-turner to boot.
Wonderful Read January 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I found it hard to put this book down. Ruth Harkness, who was rich in bravado and adventure, stood out like no other woman in her time. When I finished, it did indeed feel like a great adventure had come to an end.
 Terrible book about a panda KILLER January 3, 2008
2 out of 7 found this review helpful
If you want to read a hack writer glorifying a selfish, unscrupulous "explorer" who bankrolls the indiscriminate slaughter of pandas by hirelings while she lolls about in silks in a palace smoking opium, this is the book for you. Ruth Harkness was a vile, unprincipled woman of privilege who lied, drank, and fornicated her way into history by returning the first captured panda to the United States--after cutting a deal involving the shooting of other pandas--then spent months trying to sell it to the highest bidder. As soon as she did, she returned to China to wreak more death and mistreatment upon the species.
Most of the reviewers here must have skipped over the scenes where these woeful victims are abused, mistreated, and left to die by Harkness when another, more promising animal comes along. Actually, this is not surprising, because no animal lover could finish this ghastly book, which is very poorly written into the bargain. I know I couldn't.
Stalking the Panda-Stalker December 11, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Here's a biography that reads like a novel - a love story, a detective story and an adventure story, all rolled into one. Much of it plays out in one of the most peculiar and remarkable settings ever - 1930s China - and the characters, beginning with the irrepressable Harkness, are a combustible mixture of people who would never have come near one another were it not for . . . pandas. Originally motivated by romance and adventure, Harkness sets out to capture a panda and becomes world-famous; but in the ensuing years, the lessons she learns about people, animals and herself will turn her into a very different person. A great book!
The Lady and the Panda November 17, 2007
5 out of 10 found this review helpful
I thought the book was horrible. I am a true animal lover and find killing animals to be disgusting. The poor pandas that were captured suffered horribly and many died. Ruth Harkness said she loved the Giant Panda but she contributed greatly to the frenzy of hunters capturing and killing them for "fun". I bought this book based on the reviews I read here and was extremely disappointed and disgusted with the book.
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