"Peter Beard lived an astonishing life. The artist, wildlife photographer, and bon vivant enthralled and inspired both because of his work and his legendary lifestyle. A scion of American industry turned explorer of Africa and environmental advocate, Beard embodied the extremes of his time: grand adventurer and sexually voracious partier, friend of everyone from the Rolling Stones to Jackie Onassis to Andy Warhol to Karen Blixen. And Beard had a passion--probably more like an obsession--with the faults of the entire human experiment, with the ways in which our consumption of the world's resources have come to consume us all. Beard's outsize life and character--his death-defying documentation of both the endangered wildlife of Africa, and, closer to home, some of the world's most beautiful women for a range of fashion magazines--animate this lively but authoritative biography"-- Provided by publisher.