Joy Adamson to a number of publishers before it was bought by Harvill Press, part of HarperCollins. 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. The success of the book was due to both the story of Elsa and the dozens of photographs of her. Readers had pictures of many of the events of Elsa's life leading up to her release. Subsequent books were also heavily illustrated. "Born Free" received largely favorable reviews from critics. Adamson worked closely with publishers to
Born Free The film was one of the most popular movies at the box-office in Britain during 1966. Won Nomination The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists: The book "Born Free" (1960) was followed by two other books, "Living Free" (1961) and "Forever Free" (1963). In 1972, a film sequel entitled "Living Free" was released. While deriving its name from the second book, the film was based on the third book in the series. It starred Susan Hampshire and Nigel Davenport as Joy and George Adamson. A documentary follow-up to "Born Free", entitled "The Lions Are Free", was