Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human (Paperback)

by Elizabeth Hess (Author)
Key Phrases: diana davis, chimp house, new chimps, Nim Chimpsky, Project Nim, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In what is surely one of the most memorable and intelligent recent books about animal-human interaction, Hess (Lost and Found: Dogs, Cats and Everyday Heroes at a Country Animal Shelter) tells the story of Nim Chimpsky, who in the 1970s was the subject of an experiment begun at the University of Oklahoma to find out whether a chimp could learn American Sign Language—and thus refute Noam Chomsky's influential thesis that language is inherent only in humans. Nim was sent to live with a family in New York City and taught human language like any other child. Hess sympathetically yet unerringly details both the project's successes and failures, its heroes and villains, as she recounts Nim's odyssey from the Manhattan town house to a mansion in the Bronx and finally back to Oklahoma, where he was bounced among various facilities as financial, personal and scientific troubles plagued the study. The book expertly shows why the Nim experiment was a crucial event in animal studies, but more importantly, Hess captures Nim's legendary charm, mischievous sense of humor, and keen understanding of human beings. This may well be the only book on linguistics and primatology that will leave its readers in tears over the life and times of its amazing subject. (Mar. 4)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
Nim Chimpsky was born in a captive chimpanzee colony in 1973. Named as a play on Noam Chomsky, the famous linguist whose theory that language was a uniquely human trait the researchers hoped to disprove, Nim was to be raised in a human family and taught American Sign Language. This study on how language is acquired by humans would challenge the idea that only humans use language and blur or erase the line between human and nonhuman. But the study also created a chimpanzee with a foot in both worlds, neither fully chimp nor fully human, which further created a challenge for all of Nim’s caretakers and Nim’s own later salvation. Journalist Hess has written an affecting biography of one of the stars of primate research, from his beginnings as a two-week-old infant raised in a New York brownstone, through his various stays in research centers, his movement to a medical research facility, and his final home, at Cleveland Amory’s animal sanctuary, Black Beauty Ranch. Nim’s story is a must for all libraries. --Nancy Bent --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; Reprint edition (December 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553382772
• ISBN-13: 978-0553382778
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #255,037 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heartwarming and heartbreaking story , May 3, 2008

By	Ivy Lin (NY NY) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human (Hardcover)

Elizabeth Hess's "Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human" is simply put, one of the most entertaining, well-written biographies that I can recall. That its subject happens to be a precocious, temperamental, but lovable chimpanzee is quickly forgotten as I turned page after page.
"Nim Chimpsky" was born in unusual circumstances: he was plucked when he was days old to participate in a scientific study of whether chimps could acquire language. His very name was a clever rebuke to linguist Noam Chomsky, who famously declared that language was a uniquely human ability. Columbia University professor Herb Terrace put Nim in a human home, where he slept in a bed with his human "mother" Stephanie LaFarge, learned how to smoke cigarettes, and was taught American Sign Language for hours a day in a university classroom. Nim soon could not wake up without a cup of coffee and brought tissues to his human mother when she cried.
"Project Nim" started off promisingly enough, as Nim bonded quickly and easily with humans, and learned many signs. But the project soon went awry. Funding was a perpetual issue, as was finding caretakers for Nim as he got older, less pliant, and more dangerous. (Adult chimps are very powerful and easily overpower humans.) Then there was the issue that although Nim's ability to communicate with humans was unquestioned, Terrace was unconvinced that Nim actually had the skills to learn language. He noticed that Nim never was able to form sentences the "human" way. Terrace finally concluded that Nim was an accomplished mimic. At the ripe old age of 5, Nim was sent back to his "roots" in an Oklahoma chimp farm, and then sold to a biomedical laboratory before Terrace, some animal activists, as well as Nim's former caretakers protested. Nim spent his last years in a retirement farm of sorts for primates, and died unexpectedly at the age of 26.
Hess clearly has some disdain for the haphazard and unorganized way "Project Nim" was run, as well as the researchers who seemed to care more about academic one-upmanship that the well-being of Nim. Yet her book has none of the stridency and self-righteousness that would accompany an "animal rights" polemic. The book is remarkably well-written, with its characters (both human and chimp) practically leaping off the page. Hess has compassion for Nim's fate, but she doesn't demonize most of the humans in Nim's life, not even Herb Terrace. The one exception is William Lemmon, who ran the Oklahoma "chimp farm" where Nim was born and controlled his animals with a cattle prod. In 1982 he heartlessly sold his chimps to biomedical laboratories, Nim included. Some things have to be read to be believed. For instance, Lemmon apparently placed several chimps in homes and the chimps developed sexual relationships with their owners! Nim also requested joints and smoked up with his caretakers. Hess recounts all of this with a matter-of-factness and refusal to sentimentalize or preach that is refreshing.
As Nim grew older he became more difficult. He bit his handlers and destroyed property, but most people who encountered Nim had fond memories. He was charming and funny, and undeniably intelligent, language or no language skills. In other words, he's an enormously likable biographical subject, and Hess has produced a biography that does this coffee-loving chimp justice.
p.s. Almost as fascinating as the book itself are Hess's copious endnotes, which flesh out of the book with further details.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read, March 11, 2008

By	Mary Gail Biebel "mgbiebel" (New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human (Hardcover)

This book is a wonderful biography of Nim, a signing chimp, but it also serves as a study of the sometimes blurred boundaries between what it means to be an "animal" and what it means to be human. Elizabeth Hess has done an extraordinary job of unraveling Nim's story and presenting it in a lucid and compelling manner. She makes the story, the science, and the learnings from Nim's life accessible to the reader.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A bittersweet, but wonderful piece, March 21, 2008

By	Lisa M. Teehan (Dedham, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human (Hardcover)

To keep this short and sweet, I received this book in the mail yesterday morning and finished all 300+ pages by last night. I could not put it down. It really touched my soul. I always considered myself an animal lover, but after reading this tragic story there is no doubt in my mind that animals really do have personalities, emotions and souls. Shame on people who treat them as if they were worthless and disposable. Although I found myself crying during various chapters in the book, I am so glad I read it because it really opened my eyes. It makes me want to get involved in animal rights! What a great tribute to such a wonderful soul that was Nim Chimpsky.