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GESELL, Arnold.
Wolf Child and Human Child.
Being a Narrative Interpretation of the Life History of Kamala, the Wolf Girl. Based on the diary account of a child who was reared by a wolf and who then lived for nine years in the Orphanage of Midnapore, in the province of Bengal, India.
Publisher: New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1941
Stock code: 66001
Price: £125 Currency Conversion
First edition, first impression. An account of the wolf girls of Midnapore by the founder of the Yale University Clinic of Child Development, with a bearing on the "nature vs. nurture" debate. Gesell's book is based on the diary supposedly kept by The Reverend Joseph Amrito Lal Singh, rector of the orphanage where the "wolf girls" lived. Singh claimed that he discovered Kamala and Amala living ferally and that they resisted human contact, had difficulty standing upright, and exhibited physiological abnormalities such as eyes that glowed in the dark. Amala died in 1921, the year following their "discovery", but Kamala lived until 1929. Singh's story has now been proven a hoax; the diary that allegedly chronicled the years he cared for Kamala, and photos of the child walking on all fours and eating raw meat, were fakes prepared years later. Instead, both girls probably had developmental disorders such as autism. The author of this work, Arnold Gesell, was a paediatric psychologist and one of the first child development experts. He was particularly interested in this case for what it could demonstrate about the roles of nature and nurture in human development. A scarce and interesting account.
Large octavo. Original blue cloth, titles to spine gilt. With the dust jacket. Frontispiece and 7 plates, chart within the text. Light rubbed at extremities. An excellent copy in the rubbed, marked, and nicked jacket with tanned spine panel.
