Desmond John Morris is an English zoologist-ethologist and surrealist painter, a member of the Linnaean Society and a popular author in the field of human sociobiology. He became famous for his 1967 book The Naked Monkey and his television programs such as The Zoo of Time.
Biography
Desmond Morris was born on January 24, 1928 in Purton, Wiltshire. His mother is Marjorie Morris (née Hunt), and his father is children's fiction writer Harry Morris. In 1933, the Maurits moved to Swindon, where Desmond showed talent in natural science and writing. He was educated at Downtsea School and Boarding School in Wiltshire.
In 1946 he joined the British Army for 2 years of national service, serving as a lecturer in visual arts at Chiselton War College. After demobilization in 1948, he held his first solo exhibition of paintings at the Swindon Arts Center and began his studies as a zoologist at the University of Birmingham.
In 1950 he held a surreal art exhibition with Juan Maro at a gallery in London. In subsequent years, he held other exhibitions. In the same 1950, Desmond Morris wrote and directed two surreal films "The Flower of Time" and "The Butterfly and the Pin".
In 1951 he began his doctoral studies at the Department of Zoology at Oxford University in the direction of animal behavior. He received his Ph. D. in 1954 for his work on the reproductive behavior of the ten-headed stickleback.
Career
After receiving his doctorate, Desmond Morris stayed at Oxford to study the reproductive behavior of birds. In 1956 he moved to London as the head of the television and cinematography department of Granada TV at the Zoological Society of London and studied the imaging abilities of monkeys. His work responsibilities also included the creation of film and television programming on animal behavior and other zoological topics.
Until 1959, Morris took part in Granada TV's weekly program "Zoo Time", for which 500 episodes were written and based on them. In addition, 100 episodes of Animal Life were produced for BBC 2.
In 1957, Desmond organized an exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London, featuring paintings and drawings by common chimpanzees. In 1958, he organized the Lost Image exhibition, which compared images of babies, humans and monkeys at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
In 1959 he left Zoo Time and became the curator of the London Zoological Society of Mammals. In 1964 he gave the Royal Institution's Christmas Lecture On Animal Behavior. In 1967 he spent a year as Executive Director of the London Institute of Contemporary Art.
One of Morris's most famous books is The Naked Ape: A Zoologist's Study on Human Animals, published in 1967. It almost immediately became a bestseller in the scientific world and the proceeds from its sale allowed Morrim to move to Malta in 1968 to write a sequel, as well as other books.
In 1973 Desmond returned to Oxford and began work under the guidance of ethologist Niko Tinbergen. From 1973 to 1981, Morris was a Research Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford. In 1978 Morris was elected Vice President of Oxford United FC. In 1979, he starred in the TV series The Human Race for Thames TV. In 1982 he released films such as "Man Looks to Japan" and "Animal Show". Several other TV series were filmed in 1986.
In 2015, National Life Stories conducted an oral history interview with Desmond Morris for the Science and Religion collection at the British Library.
Bibliographic creativity
During his life, Desmond Morris wrote many popular science books and scientific works:
- Biology of Art (1983);
- Big Cats (1965), an edition from Bodley Head's Picture Books series on the habits of the Big Cats;
- Mammals: A Guide to Living Species (1965) - a complete list of all mammalian genera, with the exception of rodents and bats, with additional information on individual species;
- "The Naked Ape: A Zoological Study of Human Animals" (1967) - a look at the animalistic qualities of humanity and their similarities with other monkeys, in 2011 entered the list of the 100 best and most influential popular science books written in English since 1923, according to Time magazine versions;
- Men and Snakes (1968), a study of the complex relationships between humans and snakes, co-authored with Ramona Morris;
- The Human Zoo (1969) is a sequel to The Naked Monkey, which analyzes human behavior in large modern societies and their similarity to the behavior of animals in captivity;
- Intimate Behavior (1971) - a study of the human side of intimate behavior, the study of how natural selection has shaped human physical contact;
- Human Observation: A Field Guide to Human Behavior (1978), with a discussion of the topic "Binding Marks"
- "Gestures, their origin and distribution" (1978);
- "Days of Animals" (1979) - autobiographical book;
- Football Tribe (1981);
- Pocket Guide to People Observation (1982);
- Inrok (1983);
- Body Observation - A Field Guide to Human Species (1985) - a collection of several hundred photographs analyzing the human body;
- Catwatching & Cat Lore (1986) - a study of cats;
- "Dogwatching" (1986) - study "man's best friend";
- Horsewatching (1989) - Why the Horse Neighs and Everything You Ever Wanted to Know;
- Animal Watching (1990);
- Childhood Observation (1991);
- Bodytalk (1994);
- The Human Animal (1994) - a book and a BBC documentary series on it;
- "The Human Sexes" (1997) - BBC documentary series Discovery;
- "The Cat World and the Cat Encyclopedia" (1997);
- "With the naked eye" (2001);
- Dogs: The Ultimate Dictionary of Over 1000 Dog Breeds (2001);
- Peoplewatching: Desmond Morris's Handbook of Body Language (2002);
- The Naked Woman: A Study of the Female Body (2004);
- Linguaggio muto (silent language) (2004);
- "The Nature of Happiness" (2004);
- Watching (2006);
- The Naked Man: A Study of the Male Body (2008);
- “Child: a portrait of the first two years of life” (2008);
- Planet of the Ape (2009) - co-authored with Steve Parker;
- Owl (2009), Monkey (2013), Leopard (2014), Bison (2015) and Cats in Art (2017) - part of the Reaktion series of books on animals;
- "Life of the Surrealists" (2018).
Cinematic and television creativity
Over the years of his career, Desmond Morris has produced, directed and played roles in several feature films and documentaries, TV series and TV shows:
- Zootime (1956-1967) - weekly telecast;
- The Human Race (1982);
- Animal Show (1987-1989);
- "Contract for Animals" (1989);
- Animal Country (1991-1996);
- The Human Animal (1994);
- "Human gender" (1997).
Personal life
When Desmond Morris was 14, his father was killed on the frontlines of World War II. As a result, Morris took a course towards surrealism in his work. His grandfather, William Morris, an enthusiastic Victorian naturalist and founder of the local Swindon newspaper, had a great influence on Desmond during his time in Swindon.
In July 1952, Desmond Morris married Ramona Bowlch. The couple had one child - a son, Jason.
Morris bought out former 19th century lexicographer James Murray's original home located in North Oxford. Not far from his home, Morris built the exhibition "Taurus Gallery in the Northern Parade."
After the death of his wife, Desmond Morris lives with his son and his family in Ireland.
