A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1962)

Published in the sixties, this book is credited with inspiring the nascent environmental movement and remains influential to this day.

Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia by Bernhard Grzimek (originally pub. 1967, rev. 2003)

Attenborough mentions Grzimek as an early influence: “At that time [1950s], it appeared inconceivable that human beings, a single species, might one day have the power to threaten something as vast as” the Serengeti (34). “Yet that was exactly the fear of a visionary scientist, Bernhard Grzmiek [who was] Director of the Frankfurt Zoo” (34). The Encyclopedia is Grzimek’s masterwork.

Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey (1983)

A legendary figure in conservation circles—who was also infamously murdered, perhaps by disgruntled poachers—Fossey worked with gorillas in the jungles of Rwanda. Attenborough visits her at her camp and encounters a group of curious gorillas himself (56-59). The book was turned into a film starring Sigourney Weaver, who was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe for her performance, in 1988.

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond (1997)

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Guns, Germs, and Steel describes how civilizations developed across the globe.