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John Frederick Walker: Ivory's Ghost

January 17, 2009

John Frederick Walker shares the fascinating story of ivory's enormous impact on both human history and that of its most important source, the majestic African elephant.

A century ago, ivory was the plastic of its era. By the 1980s, elephant poaching reached record levels in East Africa, provoking a world-wide outcry that led to an ivory trade ban still in effect today. But the question of what to do with the growing stockpiles of legitimate ivory recovered from elephants that die of natural causes is at the heart of a heated and ongoing international debate.

WGBH
Harvard Museum of Natural History
Image of Ivory's Ghosts: The White Gold of History and the Fate of Elephants
Author: John Frederick Walker
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press (2009)
Binding: Hardcover, 304 pages
Image of A Certain Curve of Horn: The Hundred-Year Quest for the Giant Sable Antelope of Angola
Author: John Frederick Walker
Publisher: Grove Press (2004)
Binding: Paperback, 496 pages