I Married Adventure

A CLASSIC MEMOIR OF TWO PIONEERING ADVENTURERS Before Joy Adamson went to Africa, before Margaret Mead sailed to Samoa, before Dian Fossey was even born, a Kansas teenager named Osa Leighty married Martin Johnson, a pioneering photographer just back from a ‘round-the-world cruise with Jack London. Together the Johnsons flew and sailed to Borneo, to Kenya, and to the Congo, filming Simba and other popular nature movies with Martin behind the camera and Osa holding her rifle at the ready in case the scene’s big game star should turn hostile. This bestselling memoir retraces their careers in rich detail, with precisely observed descriptions and often heart-stopping anecdotes. Illustrated with scores of the dramatic photos that made the Johnsons famous, it’s a book sure to delight every lover of true adventure.

In this fun and creative full-color jewel filled with photos and artistic sketches, Luci Swindoll gives the reader a fascinating journey through a life well lived, one in which she purposefully chose to "marry" adventure. The classic, artful design and intriguing stories highlight Luci's unique insight and perspective that transform otherwise regular days and occurrences to experiences worth living. With the challenge to stop saying "if only" and "why me" and start asking "what if" and "why not," Luci encourages everyone to lead truly adventurous lives that yield countless blessings, lessons and inspiration. Never before has anyone modeled the joy and adventures of the journey with such clarity and insight. Readers will be drawn to I Married Adventure as it is Luci's first full-length book in over 10 years and is a personal tour of her unique approach to squeezing the most out of a life led by Christ.

Martin and Osa Johnson thrilled American audiences of the 1920s and 30s with their remarkable movies of far-away places, exotic peoples, and the dramatic spectacle of African wildlife. Their own lives were as exciting as the movies they made--sailing through the South Sea Islands, dodging big game at African waterholes, flying small planes over the veldt, taking millionaires on safari. Osa Johnson's ghostwritten autobiography, I Married Adventure, became a national bestseller. The 1939 film version was billed as "the story of World Exploration's First Lady, whose indomitable daring would be stayed by neither snarling lion nor crouching leopard, tropic tempest nor savage tribesman " Heroes to millions, Osa and Martin seemed to embody glamor, daring, and the all-American ideal of self-reliance. Probing beneath the glamor of the Johnsons' public image, Pascal and Eleanor Imperato explore the more human side of the couple's lives--and ways the Johnsons shaped, for better and for worse, America's vision of Africa. Drawing on many years of research, access to a wealth of letters and archives, interviews with many who worked closely with the Johnsons, and their own deep knowledge of Africa, the authors present a fascinating and intimate portrait of this intrepid couple.

First published in 1954, this is a true story of love and adventure which traces the history of Dawson City through the eyes of a young schoolteacher from Canada and the penniless Yukon miner she married... “This is a brave book. It is a record of a woman’s courage and devotion in a hostile land. It is the story of a refined and sensitive girl who found happiness the hard way, and triumphed over conditions that would have driven most women to distraction. It is also a tribute to a husband who with hand, heart and head was outstanding in a world of worthy men. “I have read many books on the Yukon, but this is different...It is the gallant personality of the author which shines on every page, and makes her chronicle a saga of the High North.” (Robert W. Service, Preface)

I Married a Mystic—one woman’s leap of faith to discover a love that never ends. It was a surprise to gutsy, Kirsten Buxton when Jesus appeared to her, announcing he would be her guide. At twenty-seven years of age, a serious bike accident had left her physically, psychologically, and emotionally devastated, with no control over her life. Having had no previous relationship with Jesus, she began studying A Course in Miracles, and developing trust in the Spirit within. Miraculously, world-renowned teacher of A Course in Miracles, David Hoffmeister, visited her hometown. Jesus told Kirsten to trust this man completely in order to experience a relationship like no other. Her courageous acceptance of this guidance opened her heart and mind in ways she never could have imagined. Throughout this diary of radical self-inquiry, Kirsten candidly exposes her fears, projections, and private thoughts whilst on an epic adventure of holy relationship with a tirelessly happy mystic! A must read for those seeking to intimately apply non-dual spiritual teachings in every aspect of daily experience: in the bedroom, the bathroom, and even the supermarket. This profound and often humorous account is literally a ‘how-to’ guide for awakening.

"For Osa, too, these years, from 1924 to 1927, were an especially significant period. After seven years of touring the vaudeville circuit, and seven more of exploring the South Seas and Borneo with occasional lecture tours worked in stateside to raise more capital, the Johnsons' complex at Lake Paradise was the first relatively permanent home the coup had had since that little flat they started out in back in Independence. Osa not only brought all her Kansas skills to bear on turning her Kenya house into a home, she also was largely responsible for managing the roughly two hundred "boys" needed to build the place and keep it running, as well as for organizing the several safaris the Johnsons undertook in the course of those years. When they were on safari (a term which incidentally, the Johnsons introduced to the American lexicon), whenever she was not involved in filming--either providing rifle cover for Martin or performing her own star turn in front of the camera, Osa was hunting and fishing to provide meat for the entire entourage." - May Zeiss Stange "For bravery and steadiness and endurance, Osa is the equal of any man I ever saw. She is a woman through and through. There is nothing 'mannish' about her. Yet as a comrade in the wilderness she is better than any man I ever saw." -- Martin Johnson.

The inspiring story of the legendary couple whose wildlife films transformed America’s perceptions of exotic places.