Bring ’em Back Alive 379 example giving animals personal names, in order to assist their readers in sharing the experiences vicariously. Neither writer was an academically trained zoologist; instead they negotiated their own paths through the realms of entertainment, anthropology and natural science, afforded them by the rise of public zoos. I. Buck’s Collection Journey from Texas to Singapore After recalling childhood obsessions with beautiful birds and poisonous snakes, Buck portrays himself as learning from the “school of hard knocks,” like a picaresque hero evading gunmen and partaking in barroom brawls. Having worked as a boy as a pig farmer and cowpoke, he would later invoke the image of a cowboy in the Malayan jungle by displaying his lassoing skills, merging his Texan identity with that of the explorer in exotic faraway places. At seventeen, he married Amy Leslie, a drama critic who introduced him to the luminaries of the Chicago entertainment world. These connections stood him in good stead when he later began making movies and helped him understand the importance of creating a star persona. Despite the glamor, however, his passion for animal collection lured him away to Brazil, where he bought Amazonian birds that he later sold for profit in New York and London. Observing large wild animals for the first time at the London Zoo, Buck had revelation that led to his lifelong commitment: The animals fascinated me. I could see Texas music in the lithe way a striped Bengal tiger paced his cage, each step keeping time to the banjo-ring of mythical boys from Dallas strumming on strings. I could fancy the elusive wind I had never quite caught in the sleek way a coal-black leopard. darker and glossier than the trough of any ocean wave I had ever seen. (Buck & Fraser, 1941: 86)
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