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| I Married Adventure: The Lives of Martin and Osa Johnson (Kodansha Globe) | 
| Author: Osa Johnson
Creator: Nancy Landon Kassebaum
Publisher: Kodansha Globe
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy Used: $5.72
You Save: $14.23 (71%)
New (19) Collectible (1) from $11.43
Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 262977
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 5.9 x 1.2
ISBN: 1568361289
Dewey Decimal Number: 910.922
EAN: 9781568361284
ASIN: 1568361289
Publication Date: August 14, 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Creases and dirt on exterior, some bent and slightly dirty pages. In good shape!
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 1-5 of 17 | | NEXT » |
 I Married Adventure June 9, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I loved this book! The author creates visual images that will have your palms sweating as you read about encounters with head hunters. This book inspired me to do more research about Osa Johnson. It was also enjoyed by members of my book club.
 Searching for the Grandparents of King Kong February 25, 2006
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
My interest in and use of Osa's book are fairly narrow, but I enjoyed her retelling of her life with Martin. They were truly remarkable people, who lived up to her title.
Rick Chapman
Incredible Story January 14, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book is a biography of Martin Johnson, written as a loving memorial by his wife shortly after his death in a plane crash. Martin, born in 1884, led a fascinating life. From Osa's descriptions of his school years, it sounds like if Martin had been an adolescent today, he might have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder. He was obviously a very intelligent youth, but had no patience for sitting at a desk and studying topics that weren't of direct interest to him. He was quite taken with photography however, and established himself as a professional photographer while still in high school. He also had a lifelong love of travel, and he managed to spend several years in France while his peers were off in college or getting started in their careers. A lucky break with Jack London got Martin's career going. London hired Johnson as a cook for his ill-fated around-the-world sailing expedition. It was the photos that Johnson brought back from this trip that were to provide the original seed money for all the travels and photographic projects that were to occupy him the rest of his life.
Osa's story of meeting Johnson is incredibly wild. Before she knew it, she had eloped with this young man, and found herself at the tender age of 16 trying to see his dreams of travel adventure come true. Osa was considerably younger than Martin, and it was perhaps her youth that made their partnership work. Osa was still quite unexperienced when she began traveling with Martin, and was foolhardy in the face of danger, which any person would have to be in order to keep up with him and his crazy notions. Her youth probably also gave her the physical conditioning and stamina needed to run up mountains and away from cannibals. It's amazing to read of their adventures today, especially given their time in history, starting well before World War I.
Osa left school at 16 when she married Martin, but she nevertheless became a skilled writer. She was very much a product of her times, however, when it came to her attitudes towards non-Anglo-Saxon peoples. She seemed to look upon members of "primitive" races to be so far beneath her as to be just as appropriate as animals as subjects for their photographic studies. As for animals, although she repeated endlessly their desire to go on safari in order to photograph, not shoot animals, she blithely reports shooting a variety of game, both big and small during their African travels. As she tells it, she and Martin would set up the cameras and provoke animals to charge to they could capture the charges on film. If an animal came too close, however, they would of course have to "bring it down", be it a rhino, elephant, or lion. And they couldn't escape the responsibility of providing fresh meat for their native porters, so of course she had to develop her hunting skills and shot many a Thompson's gazelle along the trail. If you can set aside such flaws and stomach-turning gaffes, the book can be an amazing account of the lives of perhaps the most adventurous couple of recent times.
Unforgettable November 6, 2005
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
A friend gave me this book almost 30 years ago, and I find that I read it every year or so.... it's inspirational and life-affirming. Every time I read it, I find myself wondering if it could really be true. It is a lovey, readable tale of two young mid-western Americans who find each other, and head out to explore the world. The love story is just as compelling as the adventure story. I find that I reach for this book at times in my life when I need to find an escape into a larger world... one full of faith and hope and openess to what's around the next corner....
The Best TRUE Adventure I've Ever Read January 31, 2004
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
I first read "I Married Adventure" when I took this book out of my local library as a student. It fascinated me. I was pleasantly surprised when I found it to still be available.Martin and Osa Johnson lived what they wrote. There is no pretense in their lives. They were true adventurers. They made a great contribution to the world of adventure. I'm sure they inspired many to further their boundaries. This is an adventure that will cause you to hold your breath while reading, wondering how they got through. I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to live outside their border. It's breathtaking!
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