Green Was the Earth on the Seventh Day [Hardcover]

Thor Heyerdahl (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 12, 1996

The bestselling author of Kon-Tiki and Aku-Aku set out for the far Pacific and a place where he could throw his watch away and meet nature in its purest form. It was the start of many journeys to prove that ancient man had traveled far and wide, and was far more daring, sophisticated, and wise than had been thought. 24 photos.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A very young Thor Heyerdahl sets out with his new wife for paradise--a natural and unspoiled world that they find, to a degree, in the South Pacific. It was the first of many journeys that would lead to expeditions and explorations, to a vocation, to the testing of theories against the currents of oceans and history, to books that would include Kon-Tiki and The Ra Expeditions. This warm, spirited, amusing memoir of Heyerdahl's youth is part love story, part adventure story, part documentary, part sermon, all good read.

From Publishers Weekly

In the mid-'30s, Heyerdahl and his bride, Liv, embarked on a year-long project to study local animals on an oceanic island to find out how they got there. The Heyerdahls selected Fatu-Hiva in the Marquesas; it was lightly populated and so remote that there was no regular ship service. They wanted to be totally independent of civilization and to live off the land; their only human-made products were an iron pot and a long-handled machete. Heyerdahl gives an engaging account of their adventures and their relations with the island's inhabitants. An elderly man who remembered the practice of cannibalism told of a tradition that the island had been settled by people from the east. Heyerdahl had noticed that many of the edible plants?pineapple, papaya, sweet potato?were native to South and Central America. Those discoveries launched him on his epic voyages (Kon-Tiki, Aku-Aku) tracing early human migrations and the theory that the diffusion of humans is linked to the spread of cultivated plants. In the final chapters, Heyerdahl makes a plea for saving Earth and its waters. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 308 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1st edition (March 12, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679440933
• ISBN-13: 978-0679440932
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,421,967 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For a moment I too, stood on Fatu-Hiva, with Liv & Thor., July 2, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Green Was the Earth on the Seventh Day (Hardcover)

Twenty years ago I read Heyerdahl's first book about his year-long stay on Fatu-Hiva. Now out of print, but renewed in this book, is the vivid recollection of his time when the rest of the world stood still and he and his new bride explored a strange new culture and began the process of discovery not only for themselves but for all of us

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Kon-Tiki's author eloquently describes his earliest years., September 15, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Green Was the Earth on the Seventh Day (Hardcover)

Before Kon-Tiki, Thor Heyerdahl and his young bride Liv departed Norway for Polynesia, to escape European civilization and live in complete harmony with nature. This beautiful and impassioned memoir describes their time and lays the philosophical and ethical groundwork for Heyerdahl's remarkable career as an explorer/scientist and one of the planet's premier environmentalists. Part memoir, part environmental manifesto, this belongs on the bookshelf of anyone who's dreamed of getting back to nature, or who has any sort of environmental passion. An important book by one of the most remarkable men of the century.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fatu Hiva born again..., May 15, 2002

By 

Dave Roberts (Johannesburg, South Africa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Green Was the Earth on the Seventh Day (Hardcover)

This is great book about Heyerdahl's adventures and philosophies before and which inspired Kon-Tiki. Unfortunately, for me, it is an exact, word-for-word copy of Fatu Hiva - except for the title.