Living Free: The Story of Elsa and her Cubs & Forever Free: Elsa's Pride

London: Collins & Harvill Press, 1961-1962. First edition. Cloth. Near Fine/Very Good. 10" by 7". Not Stated. Two smart first edition copies of these illustrated works exploring the author's life raising a lion named Elsa. Two volumes. Written by Friederike Victoria "Joy" Adamson, an Austria-Hungary-born naturalist, artist and author. These two volumes detail the life of a lioness named Elsa, rescued and raised by the author. After training Elsa to survive and hunt as best as she could, Adamson set her free and Elsa became the first lioness successfully released back into the wild, the first to have contact after release, and the first known released lion to have a litter of cubs. Adamson spent the rest of her life raising money for wildlife, thanks to the popularity of her first book Born Free. This book detailed her time raising Elsa and was followed by Living Free, which is about Elsa as a mother to her cubs, and Forever Free, which tells of the release of the cubs Jespah, Gopa and Little Elsa. This set includes: Living Free: The Story of Elsa and her Cubs, 1961. Illustrated with a colour frontispiece, seven colour plates, and many black-and-white plates from photographs. Collated complete. With an introduction by Sir Julian Sorell Huxley, a British evolutionary biologist, eugenicist, and internationalist. Forever Free: Elsa's Pride, 1962. Illustrated with a colour frontispiece, seven colour plates, and many black-and-white plates from photographs. Collated complete. In the original pictorial paper covered boards. Externally, very smart with light shelf wear to the extremities. Original unclipped dust wrappers are also smart with shelf wear and minor chipping to the extremities. Light sunning to the spines and small closed tears to the panel edges. The odd small mark. Some sympathetic repairs or reinforcements made to the internal side with tape. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are very bright and clean throughout. Contemporary ink inscription to the front endpaper. Near Fine