[2] Adamson was born to Victor and Traute Gessner (née Greipel) in Troppau, Silesia, Austria-Hungary[3] (now Opava, Czech Republic), the second of three daughters.

[citation needed] She grew up on an estate near Opava in the village called Kreuzberg (now Kružberg, Czech Republic.

(Zuzana Beranova, Dlouhe safari z Opavy do Keni) [citation needed] Joy Adamson married three times in the span of ten years.

The two largest cubs, named "Big One" and "Lustica", were passed on to be cared for by a zoo in Rotterdam, and the smallest, "Elsa", was raised by the couple.

[citation needed] After some time living together, the Adamsons decided to set Elsa free rather than send her to a zoo, and spent many months training her to hunt and survive on her own.

The Adamsons, who feared the farmers might kill the cubs, were able to eventually capture them and transport them to neighboring Tanganyika Territory, where they were promised a home at Serengeti National Park.

[5]During Elsa's lifetime, Joy and George Adamson needed each other to educate her, but after she died and her cubs were taken in by the park, their interests went in separate directions, as did their lives.

[citation needed] Using her own notes and George's journals, Joy wrote Born Free to tell the lion's tale.

Published in 1960, it became a bestseller, spending 13 weeks at the top of The New York Times Best Seller list and nearly a year on the chart overall.

Her work included portraits of the indigenous populations commissioned by the government of Kenya, as well as botanical illustrations for at least seven books on East African flora.

[8][9][10] On 3 January 1980, in Shaba National Reserve in Kenya, Joy Adamson's body was discovered by her assistant, Pieter Mawson.

[12] Paul Nakware Ekai, a discharged labourer formerly employed by Adamson, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to indefinite imprisonment.

[15] George Adamson was murdered nine years later in 1989, near his camp in Kora National Park, while rushing to the aid of a tourist who was being attacked by poachers.