By the time I was 10 or 11, I had read all of the Doctor Dolittle
books, and watched most of the old black-and-white Tarzan movies several
times over. During those years I also carefully perused National
Geographic each month for the same reason as every other boy my age:
half-dressed native women. The photos of naked natives were a thrill,
but it was the pictures of an ethereal-looking, fully clothed English
woman surrounded by chimpanzees that ignited my first crush.

Unfortunately, things never really went anywhere with Jane Goodall and
me. I wrote her a letter suggesting that I visit her (during which we'd
presumably marry) just as soon as I finished fifth grade, but at the
time the logistics of posting mail to the other side of the world were a
bit more than I could manage. Now, decades later, it's a comfort to
learn that we did share something: Our attraction to animals and life in
the wild came from the same sources. "Even when I was very tiny,"
Goodall remembers, "I was absolutely fascinated by animals. I think I
first began to dream of going to Africa after reading Tarzan and Doctor
Dolittle."

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