"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all"

Dear New England Chapter of The Explorers Club members, friends, and guests,

You are cordially invited to our next meeting of our New England Chapter of The Explorers Club, to be held on Wednesday evening, the 18th of November 2009.

Our speaker that evening will be Vicki Croke, who for more than 20 years has been covering animal issues in print and broadcast media, traveling to East Africa, the Galapagos, the Arctic circle, Tasmania, and the island of Madagascar.

Currently, Vicki hosts "The Secret Life of Animals," a magazine format TV show on wildlife and pet issues on NECN (carried in 3.7 million homes around New England), and writes on animal topics for the magazine section of The Washington Post and the Boston Globe, as well as for "O" magazine.

Vicki's last book, the best-selling "The Lady and the Panda" (Random House 2005), the true story of the intrepid American--Ruth Harkness-- who brought the first live giant panda out of China in 1936, received critical acclaim and has been adapted for film.

“Animal Beat,” her column on wildlife and pets, ran for 14 years in The Boston Globe. As a contributor to NPR’s environment show Living on Earth, she has reported on topics ranging from gorilla conservation to a coyote vasectomy. Her other work features books about dogs and about animal emergency room cases, a documentary on gorillas, appearances on popular TV talk shows, a stint as a news writer, with articles in various other publications from Time to Popular Science.

These are some websites with more information about Vicki:

www.vickicroke.com
www.thesecretlifeofanimals.com

Info on Ruth Harkness:http://vickicroke.com/theladyandthepanda.aspx

THE EVENING OF NOVEMBER 18th, VICKI CROKE WILL TELL AND SHOW US 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. As in Vicki's book "The Lady and the Panda," she will give us the remarkable account of Ruth Harkness and her extraordinary journey, restoring 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.

Thank you very much.

I look forward to seeing you at the Doubletree!

Yours in exploration,

Greg