Attenborough, David ~ Life on Earth : Signed by the Author

Collins BBC, London : 1979 : First UK printing

The First UK printing published by Collins BBC, London in 1979. 8vo., light brown publisher's boards, lettered in gilt to spine with publisher's name to foot; together in the unclipped photographic wrapper (with overlaid price sticker £7.95 net), the front panel featuring a Tree Frog from Panama, taken by the author; the rear panel showing Attenborough with sea lions on location in the Galapagos by John Sparkes; profusely illustrated throughout with numerous full and double-page photographs in full colour; The BOOK near Fine, lightly bumped at corners and spine tips, lightly toned to the text-block and offset to the end-papers; The WRAPPER also near Fine, with a couple of light scratches and nicks ; a little to the flap edges and with just a hint of sunning to the spine that is so usually encountered. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. This copy has been signed (without dedication) by the author to the title page. 'Life on Earth' was first transmitted on the 16th January 1979 on the BBC. Divided into 13 hour-long programs, the series reportedly took over three years to make, during which time the crew travelled to over one hundred countries in order to film a series of animals including a Darwin's frog, a mole rat, and slow motion imagery of a bat's wings in flight. Helped by over 500 scientists, the series was also the first to include footage of a Coelacanth, an ancient fish which had previously been thought to have become extinct. Perhaps one of the most famous moments in the series was when Attenborough, in the presence of a group of mountain gorilla's, discarded his script and ad-libbed: "There is more meaning and mutual understanding in exchanging a glance with a gorilla than with any other animal I know. Their sight, their hearing, their sense of smell are so similar to ours that they see the world in much the same way as we do." "It seems really very unfair that man should have chosen the gorilla to symbolise everything that is aggressive and violent, when that is the one thing that the gorilla is not—and that we are", he concluded. Attenborough later described the encounter as one of the most meaningful in his life. This book was released shortly after the series aired. A near fine copy of this landmark title, which forms the first book in the naturalist's acclaimed 'Life' series. It was followed by The Living Planet, The Trials of Life, The Private Life of Plants, The Life of Birds, Life of Mammals, Life in the Undergrowth and Life in Cold Blood, the last of which was published in 2008. Collectible.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Near Fine
JACKET: Near Fine