Some years ago, I had occasion to stay at the Hotel Giraffe in New York City, and in my room was a copy of Tall Blondes: A Book About Giraffes. I flipped through it, interested, but didn’t have time to read it in my brief stay. Intrigued, I bought a copy after I got home. Easily distracted, I forgot all about it for years until, in a fit of organization (don’t worry, such moods are surely temporary), I found it again and actually sat down with it.

(The Hotel Giraffe, by the way, is spacious and elegant, and has a really lovely rooftop garden. A solid choice for staying in NYC.)

Tall Blondes is a charming book, written by journalist Lynn Sherr (a tall blonde herself). It’s less a field guide or serious nature study than a cultural history of the beast, and it’s filled with interesting facts, literary quotations, artistic renderings (from prehistoric rock and cave artists through Gary Larson), and descriptions of famous giraffes in history. (Giraffe diplomacy, much like China’s current panda diplomacy, has a long history as a form of soft power, and we humans have been excited to be in the presence of these majestic animals since time immemorial Some examples: Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut authorized a successful expedition in search of the animal around 1500 BC. Julius Caesar brought one to Rome in 46 BC. And the Ringling Bros. advertised “the last giraffe secured at the cost of a fortune…the only giraffe now known to exist in the world,” adding, “When he is gone the giraffe will be extinct. Human eyes will never behold another,” in 1901.) 

I’ve admired giraffes in the Bronx Zoo (NYC), in the Toronga Zoo (Sydney), and in the Animal Kingdow Park in Walt Disney World, but this book left me with a desire to see them on safari, or perhaps at Giraffe Manor in Nairobi.  Someday, I hope to. Until then, Tall Blondes will have to do.

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BOOK: Tall Blondes–A Book About Giraffes

AUTHOR: Lynn Sherr

YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 1997

LEAD-IN IMAGE

Book cover, Andrews McMeel Publishing