An English eccentric and adventurer, Tom Harrisson (1911-1976)
sought knowledge and renown in a dizzying number of fields, while
breaking most of the rules of "civilized" society. This hugely
enjoyable story of his extravagant, controversial life offers a
sympathetic and insightful look at a charismatic figure who
offended as many people as he impressed at the twilight of
colonialism on the fringes of the British empire.
By age twenty-one, Harrisson had carried out pioneering
ornithological research and explored the flora and fauna of
Northern Borneo. While still in his twenties, he wrote a
best-selling book based on his experiences living among cannibals
in the South Pacific. The next decade found Harrisson applying the
techniques of bird-watching to his fellow Britons in what became
Mass-Observation, a precursor to modern market research. Later, he
won the DSO for parachuting into Borneo behind enemy lines and
organizing an army of blow-piping headhunters who eventually killed
more than a thousand Japanese soldiers.
After the war Harrisson settled in Borneo, where, as curator of
the Sarawak Museum, he transformed it into a model and inspiration
for the region; he led efforts to save the orangutan, the green sea
turtle, and other endangered species; he discovered the oldest
modern human skull known at the time; he published widely in the
scientific and popular press, and appeared frequently on the BBC
and British television.
A man with tremendous breadth of interest and vision, Harrisson
continually sought ways to connect knowledge across disciplines,
alienating in the process more narrowly focused alien academics who
resented his encroachments -- and his lack of a universitydegree.
Yet a number of his ideas, particularly in anthropology and
archaeology, seem modern today.
The Most Offending Soul Alive is the rousing and compelling
story of a man who has been called one of the most remarkable men
of his generation. It portrays an individual of irresistible
energy, magnetism, and imagination, but also shows Harrisson to be
an emotionally troubled man, who spent much of his life fighting to
gain respect from the academic world, despite the fact that he
despised many of its values. A hard-drinking, hard driving egotist,
full of ambition, curiosity, and pent-up rage, he never had --
during his long career and afterwards -- the recognition he sought
and deserved for his many achievements.
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