Delia Owens

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Delia Owens , born Cordelia Dykes (born April 4, 1949 in Thomasville , Georgia ) is an American writer and zoologist.

Life

Dykes was born on April 4, 1949, to Maurice Dykes (1918–1975) and Mary Helen (née Johnson) (1920–2015). With her siblings - the twin brother Robert Roy ("Bobby"), her sister Helen and her brother Lee Hawkins - she grew up in Thomasville in southern Georgia. Her family spent almost every summer in the mountains of North Carolina , where young Delia met and loved nature. She started writing as a child and won several competitions at her school. But instead of writing novels, Delia Dykes took up a degree in zoology at the University of Georgia in Athens after finishing school , completing it with a Bachelor of Science . She then received her PhD in Animal Behavior from the University of California, Davis . In 1971 she met the zoologist and biologist Mark Owens (* 1944) at the university. The couple married in 1972 and initially went to Oregon to help plan a wildlife park.

In 1974 the two decided to go to Africa. After selling their possessions, they traveled to Africa with one-way airline tickets, backpacks, and $ 6,000 to set up a research project in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana . With their modest means, they bought an off-road vehicle and camping equipment and set off for the Kalahari , one of the most remote deserts in the world. There were no roads, no settlements, and only a few groups of Bushmen . Eventually they settled in Deception Valley, the valley of the Deception River that has dried up for thousands of years and is more than eight hours from the closest civilization outpost. The couple spent seven years there, studying the pristine wilderness and authoring groundbreaking research on the black-maned Kalahari lions and the cape hyena . She published her experiences in her book Cry of the Kalahari and in a number of articles in popular and scientific publications.

From 1974 the couple worked in North Luangwa National Park and in the 1990s in Mpika . They later settled in Boundary County , Idaho .

Delia Owens debut novel Where the Crawdads Sing (dt .: The song of the crayfish ) was 2019 for several weeks on the bestseller list of the New York Times . In Germany, it was voted the Independent's Favorite Book in 2019. In the German book market, the novel was on the Spiegel bestseller list for 42 weeks from the 31st week of 2019, with it reaching number 1 in the 18th week. In Switzerland, too, the book was on the “Swiss bestseller fiction” list in January and April 2020.

Books

  • Cry of the Kalahari (together with Mark Owens) 1984
  • The Eye of the Elephant (together with Mark Owens) 1992
  • Secrets of the Savanna (with Mark Owens) 2006
  • Where the Crawdads Sing (German: The song of the crayfish ) 2018

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c The Hunted . The New Yorker . 2010.
  2. ↑ Delia & Mark Owens: The Eye of the Elephant. Frankf. a. M. 1994, p. 13
  3. ^ Encyclopedia.com: Delia Owens
  4. ↑ YouTube: The Animal Portal: An African Odyssey (National Geographic Society 1988)
  5. ^ Hancock Funeral Home Inc .: Orbituary Mary Helen Dykes Hartley
  6. ↑ CBS News March 17, 2019: Delia Owens on "Where the Crawdads Sing" (Text + Video)
  7. ↑ Picuki: @authordeliaowens
  8. ↑ Delia & Mark Owens: Cry of the Kalahari. Boston, New York 1984, p. 332 (Acknowledgments)
  9. ↑ a b c Delia Owens Homepage / About the author
  10. ^ Encyclopedia.com: Mark Owens
  11. ^ Encyclopedia.com: Delia Owens
  12. ↑ Namibiana: Mark Owens
  13. ↑ Namibiana: Mark Owens
  14. ^ Owens Foundation for Wildlife and Conservation: The Kalahari Years
  15. ^ Owens, M J. and Owens, DD: Feeding ecology and its influence on social organization in brown hyaenas (Hyaena brunnea Thunberg). In: East African Wildlife Journal 16 (1978), pp. 113-135
  16. ^ Owens, DD and Owens, MJ: Notes on social organization and behavior in brown hyaenas (Hyaena brunnea). In: Journal of Mammalogy , 60 (1979), pp. 405-408.
  17. ↑ Owens, DD and Owens, M J .: Communal denning and clan associations in brown hyaenas (Hyaena brunnea, Thunberg) of the central Kalahari Desert. In: African Journal of Ecology , 17 (1979), pp. 35-44.
  18. ↑ DDOwens & Owens, MJ: Helping behavior in brown hyenas. In: Nature 308 (1984), pp. 843-845.
  19. ↑ Owens, D. & Owens, M .: Social dominance and reproductive patterns in brown hyenas, Hyaena brunnea, of the central Kalahari desert. In: Animal Behavior 51 (1996), pp. 535-551.
  20. ↑ Combined Print & E-Book Fiction, Bestsellers . The New York Times . 2nd June 2019.
  21. ↑ Best-seller career Der Gesang der Crawfish , buchreport.de, accessed May 11, 2020
personal data
SURNAME Owens, Delia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Owens, Cordelia (full name); Dykes, Delia (married name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer and zoologist
DATE OF BIRTH April 4, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Thomasville, Georgia , United States