Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human

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Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human

3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 · rating details · 416 ratings · 98 reviews

Now Elizabeth Hess’s unforgettable biography is the inspiration for Project Nim, a riveting new documentary directed by James Marsh and produced by Simon Chinn, the Oscar-winning team known for Man on Wire. Hess, a consultant on the film, says, “Getting a call from James Marsh and Simon Chinn is an author’s dream. Project Nim is nothing short of amazing.”

Could an adorable...more Now Elizabeth Hess’s unforgettable biography is the inspiration for Project Nim, a riveting new documentary directed by James Marsh and produced by Simon Chinn, the Oscar-winning team known for Man on Wire. Hess, a consultant on the film, says, “Getting a call from James Marsh and Simon Chinn is an author’s dream. Project Nim is nothing short of amazing.”

Could an adorable chimpanzee raised from infancy by a human family bridge the gap between species—and change the way we think about the boundaries between the animal and human worlds? Here is the strange and moving account of an experiment intended to answer just those questions, and the astonishing biography of the chimp who was chosen to see it through.

Dubbed Project Nim, the experiment was the brainchild of Herbert S. Terrace, a psychologist at Columbia University. His goal was to teach a chimpanzee American Sign Language in order to refute Noam Chomsky’s assertion that language is an exclusively human trait. Nim Chimpsky, the baby chimp at the center of this ambitious, potentially groundbreaking study, was “adopted” by one of Dr. Terrace’s graduate students and brought home to live with her and her large family in their elegant brownstone on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

At first Nim’s progress in learning ASL and adapting to his new environment exceeded all expectations. His charm, mischievous sense of humor, and keen, sometimes shrewdly manipulative understanding of human nature endeared him to everyone he met, and even led to guest appearances on Sesame Street, where he was meant to model good behavior for toddlers. But no one had thought through the long-term consequences of raising a chimp in the human world, and when funding for the study ran out, Nim’s problems began.

Over the next two decades, exiled from the people he loved, Nim was rotated in and out of various facilities. It would be a long time before this chimp who had been brought up to identify with his human caretakers had another opportunity to blow out the candles on a cake celebrating his birthday. No matter where he was sent, however, Nim’s hard-earned ability to converse with humans would prove to be his salvation, protecting him from the fate of many of his peers.

Drawing on interviews with the people who lived with Nim, diapered him, dressed him, taught him, and loved him, Elizabeth Hess weaves an unforgettable tale of an extraordinary and charismatic creature. His story will move and entertain at the same time that it challenges us to ask what it means to be human, and what we owe to the animals who so enrich our lives.

From the Hardcover edition.(less)

Hardcover, 384 pages

Published February 26th 2008 by Bantam (first published 2008)

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Sep 02, 2008 Susan rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: no one

Don't bother with this book, I was very disappointed in what I read. From the very beginning she mixes up what is fact and what is not, for example when talking about the genetic similarities between chimps and humans, she states "In 2006 Harvard geneticist David Reich discovered evidence that we share a common ancestor, the product of sexual relations between humans and chimpanzees."(pg. 9) This is speculation, but she is stating it as fact. It is also total crap. There has never been any cross...more Don't bother with this book, I was very disappointed in what I read. From the very beginning she mixes up what is fact and what is not, for example when talking about the genetic similarities between chimps and humans, she states "In 2006 Harvard geneticist David Reich discovered evidence that we share a common ancestor, the product of sexual relations between humans and chimpanzees."(pg. 9) This is speculation, but she is stating it as fact. It is also total crap. There has never been any cross breeding between humans and chimpanzees, it is not genetically possible. There has, however, been possible cross-breeding between different species of early man (eg. homo sapiens & homo neandertalensis). Maybe she was simply mixed up? We evolved from common ancestors, that is why we're so similar. And to believe that (and write in a book!) we're the result of an ape-man mating tells me that she is completely uneducated in the process of evolution. And her reference for this "fact"? An article from the New York Times. She also goes out of her way to bash Roger Fouts repeatedly, even straying from the story for pages at a time to do so. She has never, to my knowledge, met or even talked to him. She repeatedly praises William Lemmon, a man well known for his cruelty to chimps and other animals. I could not figure out why she was making him out to be a hero and Fouts to be a jerk, but then in the back I found that many of her photos and references came from Lemmons son. It is obvious from the beginning that she has no background in biology, genetics, animal husbandry, or chimpanzees. And if I were just a random person reading this book, I wouldn't know how much of what she is claiming is actually untrue -I would have taken it as fact (as it is presented as such). This upsets me greatly because her false ideas and views are now in the hands of many people (the book was promoted in magazines including Cosmopolitan as a "must read"). I have been studying and working with animals including chimpanzees for over 11 years, and this is the first time I have read a book about primates where I have had to mark multiple pages to research on my own because I knew the statements made could not possibly be true. She should have used the classic line "story based on real events" rather than non-fiction, for this would excuse her mess of a story. She has written the book based on accounts from people, and we all know everyone sees and remembers events differently from others who have experienced the same event- especially 40 years later. Please, if you have read this book, read others that are based less gossip and more on research, like "Through A Window" by Jane Goodall, and "Next of Kin" by Roger Fouts. (less)

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Mar 24, 2008 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Erin, Garret and Jackie

Shelves: nonfiction

Wow...whether you are a BF Skinner or Noam Chompsky fan, an animal acitivist or advocate, are interested in language aquisition or linguistics, this book is fascinating. Though I am well aware of sentient animals being used in both behavioral and boimedical research, this book really was a wake up call for me. I have read many nonfiction accounts of amazing animals...animals who clearly have the ability to think and feel, Nim illustrates the humanness of primates poignantly. I would highly recom...more

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Dec 05, 2012 Socraticgadfly rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science, biography

The psychological question of whether or not chimpanzees can communicate, while highly important, runs a clear second to the story of the "person" of Nim Chimsky in this insightful book -- including the insight of raising the question as to whether or not that word "person" ultimately should be left in scare quotes or not.

Actually, the issue of Nim learning American Sign Language is probably the third or fourth story line in this book.

Elizabeth Hess also shows how Nim's upbringing fit squarely i...more

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May 11, 2012 Särah Nour rated it 3 of 5 stars

Hindsight is 20/20, especially when it comes to scientific studies that are revealed to have been miscalculated only in retrospect. Such is the true story behind Project Nim, an experiment that revealed the long-term consequences of exploiting a primate for research. A result of interviews and historical records collected by journalist Elizabeth Hess, Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human is a tragic, funny and maddening story of misguided attempts at scientific advances resulting in animal...more Hindsight is 20/20, especially when it comes to scientific studies that are revealed to have been miscalculated only in retrospect. Such is the true story behind Project Nim, an experiment that revealed the long-term consequences of exploiting a primate for research. A result of interviews and historical records collected by journalist Elizabeth Hess, Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human is a tragic, funny and maddening story of misguided attempts at scientific advances resulting in animal cruelty, and a character study of a much loved yet much mistreated chimp.

Project Nim was an attempt on the part of Columbia University psychologist Herbert Terrace to disprove Noam Chomsky’s theory that the capacity for language belongs exclusively to humans. Taken from his mother at birth, Nim was placed in a human family in the Upper West Side of Manhattan and raised as one of the children, while taking lessons in American Sign Language. Yet as human as he was, it soon became clear that Nim’s feral nature could not be contained, and the experiment was subsequently deemed a failure. When Project Nim ended, the chimp was abandoned by the only family he knew, and rotated throughout various facilities, from a chimp breeding farm to a medical research lab. It was his signing ability—along with the fame he amassed as a result of the study—that would save his life.

Given that Project Nim took place during the 70s, the personal dramas of the people involved were influenced by the zeitgeist of the era: a time of increasing political activism, hippie culture, the sexual revolution and women’s liberation. By detailing the cultural backdrop, Hess successfully provides some rhyme and reason to the uninformed and deplorable actions on the part of the researchers, from substance abuse and marital infidelities to punishing Nim with solitary confinement. Additionally, Hess always makes it clear that there are few clear-cut heroes and villains, and that their intentions, whether good or bad, have little bearing on the outcomes.

Hess characterizes Nim himself as not unlike a human child: mischievous, playful, unruly, and endearingly creative in his means of disobedience. But the professionals involved would eventually realize the hard way their own cardinal sin of anthropomorphizing a primate; a fact that became clear during attempts to socialize Nim with other chimpanzees after a lifetime spent with humans. What appears infuriatingly obvious to modern readers was not so to these seemingly intelligent psychologists and linguists whose actions are now considered not only despicable but completely foolish.

Alternately humorous and heartbreaking, Nim Chimpsky is a story that needs to be told; a cautionary tale of the treatment of animals as research subjects, and the unpleasant truth about the price of scientific discovery; as much a morality tale, and a fun, charming story, as it is an educational biography.

You can read this and other reviews at my blog: http://zeitgeist-sacha1689.blogspot.com/(less)

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Mar 20, 2009 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

We live in a throw-away society, even when it comes to animals, as evidenced by the pets found in shelters. And Nim, a chimpanzee who lived with humans for the first few years of his life, was also a victim of this mentality.

Nim was taken from his mother within weeks of birth and went to live with a human family and taught American Sign Language. Researchers wanted to disprove Noam Chompsky's theory that language is inherent only in humans. Some studies were successful, others were not. But what...more

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Dec 08, 2008 Christina Stind rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008, animals, biography, non-fiction, library

This is the story of Nim Chimpsky, a young chimp chosen to be part of a language experiment. The idea of the experiment was to prove Noam Chompsky wrong - Chompsky thought that language is inherent in human beings and for this reason can't be taught, that language is exlusive to humans. Project Nim is trying to prove that you can teach a chimp to use sign language and that the chimp is then able to communicate his thoughts and feelings.

To make the chimp's life as close to human as possible, Nim...more This is the story of Nim Chimpsky, a young chimp chosen to be part of a language experiment. The idea of the experiment was to prove Noam Chompsky wrong - Chompsky thought that language is inherent in human beings and for this reason can't be taught, that language is exlusive to humans. Project Nim is trying to prove that you can teach a chimp to use sign language and that the chimp is then able to communicate his thoughts and feelings.

To make the chimp's life as close to human as possible, Nim is adopted by a human family when he's only a few days old and the book then follows his life. The first years are great - he lives in a family and are well taken care of. But partly because of Nim, the family breaks and Nim is placed in another living situation where he also enjoys himself. But suddenly Project Nim comes to an end and Nim is suddenly shipped back to the place he came from and is expected to suddenly live together with other chimps, live in a cage and no longer wear clothes or getting to sleep with his favourite blanket.
As if this wasn't hard enough, he eventually ends up in a medical trial facility and is supposed to be part of a hepatitis experiment. Luckily, Nim's fame saves him and he ends up in an animal sanctuary. All is not well yet for Nim but finally, he gets a decent place to live and a companion and in spite of a few setbacks, he lives the rest of his life in peace. I particularly liked the fact that he has two books - one about sign language and the other a book about himself, The Story of Nim: The Chimp Who learned Language filled with photos of him - and how he took very good care of these two books. They obviously meant something to him and I thought that was very sweet.

One of the things that surprised me about this book was it's lack of emotion. I had expected it to be a very passionate book filled with emotions - but it wasn't and I actually really liked that about it. To some extent, the books let you decide for yourself whether Chompsky's theory still stands or is shot down by Project Nim and I liked that the book didn't preach to me about animal rights but presented Nim's life story very straightforward.
But it's hard not to feel sorry for him - having been raced human, taught sign language and then just dumping him to fend for himself in very harsh circumstances because the project was over and he became to difficult to keep in a home.

My problem with this entire line of work is that we take the chimps out of their way of life and cuts off all contact to other chimps so they think they are human - then we teach them a human way of speaking and expect them to show us their feeling through this - to them - alien language. I mean, I have a hard time speaking Dog to my cairn terrier - of course a chimp has a hard time learning Human. Even though this type of experiment doesn't physically hurt the animal, and even though the animal is put in a loving family, these types of studies are still cruel because they isolate the chimps for a part of their life and get them used to one type of life - and suddenly, they are to big and to difficult and are snatched away and put back with their own kind, probably not even knowing that these weird hairy animals are their own kind!
And don't even get me started on the sexual relations some of the chimps had with their human 'parents'!

In my opinion, animals speak to each other, they do have language. But they don't speak the same way we do and they don't see the world the same way or feel the same about what they experiences (of course they feel pleasure and pain!) and this makes it extra difficult to expect them to tell us about themselves, their hopes and dreams, in our languages, even though chimps and other apes are physically capable of using sign language.

The book was very interesting and it details a lot of the research done on and with chimps during this period and I highly recommend it to people interested in this kind of animal tests or in the famous Nim himself.
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Jul 24, 2011 dragonhelmuk added it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Kindled for £4.50, a look at Nim Chimpsky, the most famous and successful Chimp to learn American Sign Language. Unfortunately this book doesnt contain many of his conversations, thoughts or feelings, but instead looks primarily at the people around him. The long diversions into their lives would be fine if we heard a bit more of what Nim had to say, but unfortunately we didn't.

The following quotes are fairly typical of the book:

"Although Nim bore a close resemblance to a human infant, the LaFar...more

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May 28, 2009 Anna rated it 3 of 5 stars

7. 1/31/2009: Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human, by Elizabeth Hess.

This was a strange and sad book. Strictly biographical and mostly without commentary, Hess details the data of Chimpsky's life: born in captivity in Oklahoma, raised in a series of foster homes and taught ASL by his foster mothers while part of a language study at Columbia University, returned to Oklahoma, and eventually placed in a sanctuary in Texas where he lived the rest of his days, Nim was a unique and temperamenta...more

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Jan 29, 2009 Karen added it

This book was listed as a reference in Captivity, a novel I enjoyed reading. This book was a non-fiction account of the chimp Nim, who was raised in a human family for the first few years of his life. Research project was to see if chimps could learn sign language when reared in human family. The sad part is what happens to the chimps when they grow so big the human family can't cope with them anymore, or when the human family grows tired of having a chimp around. From a life among humans to a c...more

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Feb 15, 2013 Elizabeth rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: anthropology

The life of Nim Chimpsky touches on many fascinating questions about what it means to be a human, what it means to be an ape, and how totally messed up things get when we start blurring boundaries. There's lots of potential here. Unfortunately, this book is more about confused human beings and their personal and political conflicts than it is about NIM the chimpanzee. If you love animals, this book will probably be a disappointment. If you're interested in the people who study animals, and the e...more

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Dec 29, 2008 Tatiana rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book was revealing concerning the use of chimpanzees in research, particularly research into language acquisition and communication. The book is a "biography" of Nim Chimpsky, a chimp raised as human, and taught ASL, in order to challenge Chomskian thinking that claims human use of language is in some sense unique. The scientists involved with Nim Chimpsky believed that chimps could be taught to use language as humans do... What one learns in the end is a lot about this particular chimpanze...more

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Apr 15, 2009 Jeffrey Dinsmore rated it 3 of 5 stars

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. Nim's story is fascinating, but the author focused too much on the people in Nim's life, particularly in his later years. It seems like he spent the last 20 years of his life in a cage, and I guess there isn't much of a story in that. Plus, he kinda sounded like a little bastard, and I had a hard time understanding why people were so emotionally affected by him. HOWEVER, the book does answer some interesting questions about chimpanzees who are u...more

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Jun 26, 2012 Dana rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you think there is a difference between people and animals, you are probably right: humans are crueler. This book not only shows what chimps are capable of, but what we are, and it is not clear who has the shorter attention span. There are myriad examples of people behaving badly in this book, which just confirms my bias against scientific testing in general and academics doings scientific testing in particular. I think any kind of research that involves electric cattle prods is immoral, but...more

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Jan 28, 2013 Kim Stallwood rated it 4 of 5 stars

If there’s anyone left on the planet who needs convincing that chimpanzees are more like us (or we’re like them) than they’d care to think they need to read Elizabeth Hess’s biography of Nim Chimpsky, the chimpanzee who was taught to communicate in American Sign Language (ASL).

Animal biographies are a publishing curiosity. Me Cheeta: The autobiography, the memoir of Cheeta, the celebrity chimpanzee who swung from tree to fame in the Tarzan movies, was recently published. As clever as chimpanzees...more If there’s anyone left on the planet who needs convincing that chimpanzees are more like us (or we’re like them) than they’d care to think they need to read Elizabeth Hess’s biography of Nim Chimpsky, the chimpanzee who was taught to communicate in American Sign Language (ASL).

Animal biographies are a publishing curiosity. Me Cheeta: The autobiography, the memoir of Cheeta, the celebrity chimpanzee who swung from tree to fame in the Tarzan movies, was recently published. As clever as chimpanzees are no one really believes it was Cheeta who wrote it (it was James Lever). American Presidential pets are also notorious for writing books. Socks, the Clinton’s cat, wrote Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids’ Letters to the First Pets (well, Hillary claims to have written it which is just as likely as Socks writing it). Bush Senior’s dog, Millie, wrote Millie’s Book; As Dictated to Barbara Bush (debatable, again, as to whether it was Millie or Barbara who wrote it). We look forward to the literary delights of Barney (Bush Junior’s dog), who will presumably write from his residential retreat in Midland, Texas. (Barney already has his own page on the White House website.)

Writing a serious biography of an animal is a formidable challenge, as I know from working with the artist, Sue Coe, on a project about Topsy, the elephant electrocuted by Edison in 1903. Human lives, unlike animal lives, are documented from birth to death. Hess’s accomplishment in Nim Chimpsky: The chimp who would be human is framing the biography to address his life and the lives of the humans and chimpanzees who shaped his life, starting as a controversial research tool and ending as a rescued celebrity.

From this beginning to the final years at The Fund for Animals’ Black Beauty Ranch in Murchison, Texas, Hess recounts Nim’s life and the cast of human and chimpanzee characters (there’s even a “Where They Are Now” for the people) with discipline and diligence.

Born at the Institute for Primate Studies in Norman, Oklahoma and taken from his mother 10 days after his birth, Nim was given to an affluent white family to be raised in an Upper West Side Manhattan brownstone. Diapered and dressed like a human baby, he was taught American Sign Language in order to prove we are not the only ones with the capacity to learn language.

I reacted to Nim’s biography with anger and despair as well as a deeper appreciation of how unscientific science really can be when it wants to be. For example, the name, Nim Chimpsky, is a silly reworking of Noam Chomsky, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology linguist who maintains only humans are capable of language. Science and anthropomorphism were conveniently cast aside throughout Nim’s life. He was raised as a human baby by people who had no relevant experience or professional training in chimpanzees and their welfare. He was taught ASL primarily by people who were either learning it for the first time or picked it up as they went along. The research proceeded without a secure financial foundation thereby putting the chimpanzees’ lives at continuous risk.

Thankfully, Hess doesn’t let her emotions interfere with her remarkable ability to retell (and research) Nim’s story. Every now and then, however, she let us know what she really thinks. These few moments underscore the understated approach she takes. Nim’s tragedy speaks for itself, as do all the other chimpanzees mentioned in the book, including Kitty, Midge, Lulu and Sally.

The recently published revised European Commission Council Directive (86/609/EEC) on animal research proposed a ban on the use of great apes (orang-utans, gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos). Animal advocates say this is an empty gesture. Apes are not used in the European Union for research. If there’s anyone left on the planet who needs convincing that this shouldn’t be the case for the rest of the world should read Elizabeth Hess’s biography of Nim, the chimp who endured the tragedy of being almost human.(less)

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Nov 03, 2011 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography-memoir, non-fiction, science

The story of Nim Chimpsky is pretty heart breaking. He is shuffled from place to place as if he were nothing more than a suitcase, but he is acquiring language and attachments all along the way. It is bad enough to place captive-bred, non-language proficient chimps into many of the places where Nim lived, but researchers specifically fostered relationships and communication in Nim, only to take them away when funding or interest dried up. The transitory nature of his use as a research animal see...more

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Jul 22, 2011 Tara rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What began as an intellectual feud of sorts between Professor Herbert Terrace and Noam Chomsky left in its wake a good many victims, simian and human. Chomsky's theory revolves around a universal grammar inherent in the huma brain and therefore exclusive to humans. Terrace's mentor at Harvard, B.F. Skinner, believed language could be learned through behaviorism. Thus begins the story which ultimately led to chimpanzees being taken from their mothers within days and sent to various families in or...more What began as an intellectual feud of sorts between Professor Herbert Terrace and Noam Chomsky left in its wake a good many victims, simian and human. Chomsky's theory revolves around a universal grammar inherent in the huma brain and therefore exclusive to humans. Terrace's mentor at Harvard, B.F. Skinner, believed language could be learned through behaviorism. Thus begins the story which ultimately led to chimpanzees being taken from their mothers within days and sent to various families in order for Terrace to prove his theory that language can be taught to species other than humans.
Nim was born in captivity in 1973 and was the central figure in "Project Nim". He was placed with a family on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where he was basically treated as a sibling to the family's children. The matriarch of the family, Stephanie LaFarge, went so far as to breastfeed the chimp. After his stay at the LaFarge's, Nim was bounced around from families to mansions owned by Columbia University to his birthplace, The Institute for Primate Studies in Norman, OK to a research lab to an animal sanctuary ill equipped to deal with chimpanzees.
The cast of characters in this story was a bit hard to follow as so many people were involved in "Project Nim" and its aftermath. Nim was treated with love by some and callousness by others. It was ultimately decided that chimps can be taught to sign for various objects, needs and feelings but don't truly learn language as they are incapable of stringing "words" together in a cohesive way.
An interesting enough read, though I'm interested in seeing the upcoming documentary based upon Nim's life. Even the chimps living in the best of captive situations are used for their amusement quotient to the humans in their lives, and its a bit melancholic to see them smoking pot (in some cases signing for it), drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes (which they seem to love) and using their intelligence to play jokes on their keepers. When it comes down to it, though, they are merely innocent animals who are cast aside when their immense strength and uncontrolable temperaments become an inconvenience to their humans.(less)

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Jun 26, 2008 Christine rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Animal Lovers, Animal Welfare

I love this book. It provides a window into animal research, animal researchers and the experiences of the animals involved. Nim Chimpsky follows the life of a remarkable chimp who is placed into a project designed to refute Noam Chomsky's assertion that language is an exclusively human trait.

Nim is placed in a human home and raised as a human, until Nim proves to be too much to handle. Nim is taken away from the only family he knows and subsequently lives with two additional 'research families...more

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Jun 12, 2008 Fran rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: animal lovers, Okies, OU fans, non-fiction/ biography readers, science/ psychology buffs

Recommended to Fran by: indirectly Dr. Barbara King of "The Teaching Company"

Shelves: non-fiction-biography, non-fiction-boot-camp

Elizabeth Hess's biography of signing chimp Nim Chimpsky is no doubt the best piece of non-fiction I have read in years. If Dickens had written in the 1980's instead of the latter half of the 1800's, he might have created a fictional Nim Chimpsky with as tortured and erratic a life as poor Nim's real one. With a cast of characters, both human and animal, as disparate as the teen-ager who would later become Janice on "Friends", to animal advocate Cleveland Amory, to other signing chimps like Wash...more

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Jun 21, 2008 Jenny rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those interested in langauge and/or animal research

Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human is a discomforting and absorbing biography of a research animal. In 1973, Columbia University psychologist Dr. Herbert Terrance set out to prove the renowned MIT linguistics professor Noam Chompsky wrong about language acquisition. Chomsky asserts that language, as defined by the innate ability for one to understand grammatical structure and to produce creatively new sentence structures, is an exclusively human trait. Terrance, on the other hand, believ...more Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human is a discomforting and absorbing biography of a research animal. In 1973, Columbia University psychologist Dr. Herbert Terrance set out to prove the renowned MIT linguistics professor Noam Chompsky wrong about language acquisition. Chomsky asserts that language, as defined by the innate ability for one to understand grammatical structure and to produce creatively new sentence structures, is an exclusively human trait. Terrance, on the other hand, believed that language was a behavior that could be learned via reinforcement. To achieve these aims, he planned to raise the chimp as a human and to have his human family teach him language using American Sign Language (ASL). In the end, the ambitious Professor Terrance would recant and side with Chomksy.

I first learned about Project Nim in an undergraduate level linguistics course. Intrigued by the idea of interspecies communication, I never forgot about the study and was delighted to find Elizabeth Hess’s thorough account of Nim’s life and a short history of primate language studies. In the book, we learn about the personal lives of the many research scientists, students, and volunteers responsible for Nim’s care and learning. At first I was surprised by the detailed drama of these people, but later realized how important it is to know qualitatively about Nim’s ‘habitat.’ These people and their conditions provide a context for the language study and it became very clear how difficult it was to maintain any controls over the project.

I was astonished by the lack of planning and loose methodology with Project Nim. Graduate student caregivers came and went. This itinerant nature of his ‘family’ caused Nim to become moody and violent. Professor Terrace did not bother to hire staffers who were fluent in ASL; thus, signing was loose and nuanced. Mid-study when an ASL teacher was brought on board, she asked why the chimp was not raised by a deaf couple who would sign effortlessly and continuously. Inconsistency was detrimental to the study.

Despite all the media attention Project Nim attracted, Terrance was unable to continue to secure funding for the tremulous project; and while his last two graduate students were passionate about continuing, it was doubtful either would stay for the long haul. Project Nim was finished. Terrance returned Nim from whence he came, the Institute for Primate Studies (IPS) in Norman, Oklahoma. The remainder of the book relates how IPS failed, too, and how Nim and his peers were sold to a medical research laboratory. A public campaign to save Nim the Precocious ensued.

Hess has written an important book that challenges us to rethink our assumptions about animal research. If you read this book, prepare your heart as you will be charmed by this extraordinary animal, and prepare your mind to explore the gray area between language and communication.
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May 28, 2008 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

The amazing backstory of Nim (named for Noam Chomsky, MIT linguist who challenged the behaviorist theory of language), the famous chimp used to study the acquisition of language. As opposed to other famous chimps, who acquired sign language capabilities while caged, Nim was raised from the age of ten days as a human, first living with a family in a NYC brownstone and then, as he became harder to handle, in a Riverdale mansion associated with Columbia University. The basic thrust of the research...more

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May 22, 2008 John rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, science, biography

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. On a normal trip to the library, I would never have picked this book up. But I was in a hurry, in the mood for non-fiction, and saw this on display on my way to check out some other books. For some reason the name Nim Chimpsky also sounded familiar to me, so I got the book.

Anyway, it was an interesting read. Parts of it were even quite engaging. After reading half of it, however, I grew tired of reading about the life of a chimp and almost took it back to the library. It sat on the table for a c...more

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May 12, 2008 Gwen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Well, hell. I assume it won't come as much of a surprise to you that a book about a chimp raised by humans might turn out to be really depressing.

I kept thinking of the case of Genie, the "wild child" found living in an attic, devoid of all socialization, in the 1970s. A group of researchers took her in and intended to study her acquisition of language and whether a child who had no early socialization could learn to speak. They obviously cared for her, but at the same time they also wanted to b...more Well, hell. I assume it won't come as much of a surprise to you that a book about a chimp raised by humans might turn out to be really depressing.

I kept thinking of the case of Genie, the "wild child" found living in an attic, devoid of all socialization, in the 1970s. A group of researchers took her in and intended to study her acquisition of language and whether a child who had no early socialization could learn to speak. They obviously cared for her, but at the same time they also wanted to build their careers off of her. When it became clear they'd gotten all the useful data they were going to--and that her language acquisition had stalled--she entered foster care and moved from one bad situation to another, being abused at several points. She eventually died in a nursing home. Whenever I read about that case, I get really angry at a group of people who seemed to forget that their research subject was a PERSON, not just part of a research project.

And I felt the same way with Nim. The practices of the researchers, and their complete inability to see that chimps suffer psychological distress and depression, is hard to contemplate. Chimps were sent to "foster families" who had no training and were completely unprepared for what having a chimp would be like as it got older and became aggressive and destructive. Once researchers were done with them, they dumped them back where they bought them--often from the Institute for Primate Studies at the University of Oklahoma, where I got my bachelor's degree--or looked for sanctuaries to take them.

Nim was raised in a human family for a couple of years and then remained in a human environment. He learned to sign many words and was very attached to the people around him. But eventually he was sent back to IPS, where he had to live in a cage much of the time. Then he was sold to a medical research facility. An outcry eventually saved him from being injected with hepatitis and he ended up in a sanctuary in Texas in less than ideal conditions, but at least with human interaction and chimp companions until he died.

The whole book made me really horrified about chimp testing--not that I'd never thought about it before, but not recently--and the way they're repeatedly tested on until they die from depression or infections in research labs or are shipped somewhere for "retirement." I do not consider myself an animal rights activist, but I guess I'd fall into the "animal advocate" category, and I can't help feeling that there's something wrong when people can accustom an animal to human interaction and attention and then abandon it to whatever fate it might encounter when it's no longer useful for publishing and getting tenure.(less)

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May 28, 2008 Beth Ann rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: set-aside-for-now, read-at-a-bookstore

I read the majority of this book, but I could not finish it. My lack of commitment has nothing to do with the author's prose. She writes well, and she goes into extraordinary background detail about the subject matter.

I'm queasy about the subject of vivisection to begin with. This book outraged me on the perversity employed by scientists when deciding what to do with unwanted language acquisition chimpanzees.

Many of these chimps had been raised with humans in their homes and then taught how to s...more

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Mar 04, 2008 Kevin rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. It's been said you can't judge a book by it's cover, and boy was that the case with this book. The title is a clever play on the name of Noam Chomsky, the famous linguist who asserted that language was an exclusively human trait. Couple this with a picture of an adorable little chimp wearing cute little red sweater, while reaching out to grasp a human hand, and I thought I was going to be reading a fun and amusing tract relating the methods in which some kind hearted and well meaning humans use...more It's been said you can't judge a book by it's cover, and boy was that the case with this book. The title is a clever play on the name of Noam Chomsky, the famous linguist who asserted that language was an exclusively human trait. Couple this with a picture of an adorable little chimp wearing cute little red sweater, while reaching out to grasp a human hand, and I thought I was going to be reading a fun and amusing tract relating the methods in which some kind hearted and well meaning humans used to teach American Sign Language to Nim
Nothing could have been further from the truth. I was shocked and at times appalled by the physical and emotional hardships Nim was forced to endure. Some of these hardships were caused by simple cold indifference to the emotional needs of chimpanzees. In other cases the humans involved with Nim did have his best interests in mind but bureaucratic, political, and financial circumstances beyond their control further added to Nim's hardships.In many ways these cases were harder to read because the humans involved suffered as well.
That being the case, it is in my mind, absolutely inexcusable, if not down right criminal, to place a chimpanzee, who was raised in human homes, as a member of the family from infancy, into a primate medical research lab, after the language acquisition experiment was terminated.
The press eventually got wind of Nim's plight and the famous animal rights activist Cleveland Amory, got involved and was able to secure Nim's release. Nim was sent to Armory's ranch in Texas populated with numerous and varied hoofed animals such as burros, retired thourobreds, buffaloes, even elephants. But for over a year Nim was kept isolated in a small cage devoid of any sunshine or chimpanzee company. Nim suffered terribly under these conditions until somebody finally got the bright idea to provide him with another chimp for company. Duh ? Eventually three more chimps were brought to the ranch and by all accounts Nim was finally provided with the type of physical and emotional environment he needed to thrive. Unfortunately he only had a few years to enjoy them before suffering a massive heart attack.
It was a gut wrenching read , but well worth it.(less)

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Feb 15, 2009 Bernadette rated it 4 of 5 stars

This opened my eyes to animal research and how far we've come in a relatively short period. I would be interested to know what the current state of primate research is, though I am afraid to find out. Somewhat confusing to read, as there are a lot of names, but not many reminders as to who people are. Wish the book at been footnoted so that I could have known to be looking at all the extras in the back, which I only thought to look up about halfway through.

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Mar 28, 2009 Lynn Phillips rated it 5 of 5 stars

Most moral tales of our time have been about humanity's refusal to accept The Other. This is a story about how the opposite impulse -- the refusal to recognize that The Other is deeply different than we are -- can lead to a vain and sentimental kind of evil. Finely detailed, well-told, and consistently discomfiting, the story is a must-read for those interested in what it means to belong to our particular species in our strange times.

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Mar 23, 2009 Zach rated it 2 of 5 stars

What's here about Nim is a fascinating story of animal psychology and the relatively small differences that separate us from the chimpanzee. Unfortunately, the book is roughly 1/4 Nim, 1/3 people who knew Nim, 1/3 animal rights activism you've heard variants of before, and the rest shoddily researched scientific meandering. All I could think while reading that 3/4 of the book (scattered throughout) is "Show me the monkey!"

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Jan 08, 2013 Kimberly rated it 4 of 5 stars

My boyfriend bought me this book because he knows I love animals and I totally told him it was awful purchase. If you want a happy story of animal rescue this is not it. The university dr in charge of this investigation is totally negligent. He had no idea what he was doing he hired pretty girls to have sex with he was absolutely undeniably negligent. When you read the book you are disgusted and upset. I suggest you watch the movie to see the doctor in action to see how disgusting he is. In the...more

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Mar 14, 2009 Brigid rated it 5 of 5 stars

OMG! this book is so sweet and funny! two funny parts, were when one time Nim was outside with one of his caretakers, and all of the sudden a thunderstorm began, and when Nim heard the thunder, he jumped into his caretakers shirt, just poking his eyes out the top. tee hee. another time, he was out in his fenced front yard, "helping" a different caretaker prune the roses, and when the caretaker realized he was sneaking eating roses, she turned right around, and sternly said, "stop eating those ro...more

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Sep 16, 2009 Jill rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have no idea what possessed me to buy this book, but whatever it was, I'm thankful for it. What a fantastic read! I don't usually indulge in biographies (I'm more of a "memoir" kind of girl), but this one was genuinely interesting and, at times, heartbreaking. I often sympathized more with Nim than with the people involved in his research project. In fact, most of them disgusted me. Nim, however, as well as the other chimps that Hess describes, both charmed and amazed me.

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“Lucy preferred gin and tonics during the summer and switched over to whiskey sours in the winter. At dinner, a sit-down affair with the family, Lucy drank whatever the Temerlins drank, including expensive French wines. "She never gets obnoxious, even when smashed to the brink of unconsciousness," wrote Maurice, revealing more about the chimp's alcoholism than perhaps he intended. At one point, he tried to wean Lucy off the good stuff and onto Boone's Farm apple wine. Assuming she would delight in the fruity swill, he purchased a case and filled her glass one night at dinner. Lucy took a sip of the apple wine, noticed her parents were drinking something else, and put her glass down. She then graabbed Maurice's glass of Chablis and polished it off. She finished Jane's next. Not another sip of Boone's farm ever touched her lips.” — 1 person liked it

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