Talk:Paul Du Chaillu

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Untitled[edit]

Paul de Chaillu's book, Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa was a favorite of Merian C. Cooper when he was a child. The gorilla chase scene of the book was the inspiration for Cooper's most famous film, King Kong.

It was also the inspiration for Ballantyne's The Gorilla Hunters. --Orland (talk) 22:07, 30 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Year of birth[edit]

The article discusses whether he was born in 1831 or 1835, but seem to conclude with 1835 as the most likely, since 1835 is used in the opening sentence and the birth category. Given that he gained the confidence of the learned society Academy of Natural Sciences and organized a expedition in 1855, i find it more likely that he was 24 than 20 at that time. --Orland (talk) 22:07, 30 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

While your reasoning seems sound, we have to be careful not to try to decide it ourselves, but to go with the consensus of independent sources. To further complicate that: I just noticed that his gravestone gives his year of birth as 1839. :) -Jason A. Quest (talk) 22:29, 30 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Strange indeed. And of course I agree to the principle of independent sources. Stuart McCook's writes in his 1996 article about du Chaillu and "The monkey business" that around 1831 is the most probable year of birth. --Orland (talk) 12:22, 11 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Another cited source agrees, and I've changed the article to reflect that. -Jason A. Quest (talk) 13:47, 11 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]