The Diary of Henry Chimpman: The Complete Saga (box set)

By Nathaniel Gold and Henry Chimpman

Henry Chimpman was supposed to be the first chimpanzee in space. 

Before the world knew his name, Henry and his family were immigrants to America. Growing up was not easy for this young chimp but he learned to adapt.  Between his love of baseball, music and his family, he learns what it takes to be the best he can be.  Unfortunately life is not always kind to Henry and he soon discovers that growing up can mean learning the truth and that the truth is not always friendly.

After his baseball career was cut short due to an injury, Henry finds himself out of work with no future in sight.  While sitting in the public library, Henry discovers an article that will change his life forever.  Henry enters the space program with the intention of being a star.  He wants to learn to be the first chimpanzee to fly a rocket, but what he discovers is something he never expected.

Henry is on a mission to expose those discoveries but will that make him a hero, or will it simply turn him into a fugitive?

The Diary of Henry Chimpman: the complete saga includes all four volumes of his diary as well as every illustration. A hero’s adventure like none you have ever experienced before.   This amazing tale is a fusion of Planet of the Apes, and Forest Gump. If you like The One and Only Ivan you will love the Diary of Henry Chimpman.

Buy this book for a 28% discount rather then getting each book individually and experience the entire saga today!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nathaniel Gold
• Release date: Jan 9, 2017
• ISBN: 9781540127792

Book preview

Volume

One

From the Forest to

the

Zoo

1

Henry Chimpman’s Diary Entry

Day 1,502

---

Today was another lonely day here in the city zoo. Humans came to point and stare, but they never bother to talk with me. There were a few school trips—oh yeah, and all the bananas I could eat. Just like every

other

day

.

---

I miss being with other chimps. We’re supposed to live with each other, not all alone. And I miss being with the whole world outside

this

cage

.

---

It has been one thousand five hundred and two days since I had a meaningful conversation with anyone. That is how long I’ve been in this place.

---

I sit here in my cage and listen to the humans talk. I like to pretend that they are talking

to

me

.

---

Today I heard them talk about the Statue of Liberty, baseball, and the presidential election. That conversation reminded me of when I ran for mayor of

New

York

.

---

Have I ever told you about the time I ran for mayor? It was a wild time, but first let me tell you about how I came to America …

2

Big Dreams

Iwas born in a forest in central Africa on October 27, 1939. Unlike most of my relatives I was not happy there, and luckily, neither were my parents. When the time came for my father, Jay Chimpman, to become the alpha and lead the troop, he needed to make a choice. For him, the choice came easy. His dream was to be a musician in New York City, not live an average life of hanging out in trees. My mother agreed, so they packed up my sister and me, and we headed for civilization .

3

My Parents

Jay and Donna Chimpman met when they were fifteen. My mother fell for him right away. She loved that he was a rebel .

---

Back then my father loved two things: my mother and music. Whenever he had a chance, he would bang on a drum that he’d carved. He loved that drum and kept it hidden behind a tree that he called his sanctuary.

---

This tree stood the lowest point of the forest where we lived, far from where the rest of the chimps looked for food or napped. My mother would sneak away to listen to him play any time she could. They spent all their free time together and got married when they were eighteen.

---

My mother’s parents were not happy with us moving to America. They were in love with the forest and raised their daughter to love the forest. They did not approve of my mother marring my father—in the back of their minds they must have known that she would leave with him

one

day

.

---

But my mother loved my father very much. If he needed to move out of the forest, that’s what they would do, even though she new how hard it would be. She had two kids to raise with no support system, and the humans wouldn’t be much help. For hundreds of years they have looked down on us as nothing more than their uncivilized cousins.

---

It was easier for my father. His parents had been kidnapped by poachers who sold them to a circus when he was ten, so he was used to being alone. The only things he had to love were music and my mother, and both were coming with him to America.

4

Stuck in a Cage on

a

Ship

Iwas five years old when we came to America, and my sister had just turned one. We didn’t have much, not even any clothing. In the forest chimpanzees don’t wear any clothes, so you can imagine how embarrassing it must have been for us those first

few

days

!

---

I don’t remember much about how we got from the forest to America, my parents told us stories about it when my sister and I

were

kids

.

---

The trip took several months and was real hard on my family. My sister got sick on the ship and had a fever for

several

days

.

---

There were two other chimps on the ship beside my family, and we all had to spend almost the entire trip in cages in the bottom of the ship. My father said that it made us feel embarrassed and ashamed. We were coming to America to join a human society and here we were, caged like wild animals.

5

Edith

and

Sol

The other two chimps on board the ship were an older married couple, Sol and Edith. They had moved to America twenty years before but returned to the rain forest to visit Edith’s brother and his children .

---

Edith and Sol came to America in 1925 for many of the same reasons that my father wanted to come. This could have been why they were so nice

to

us

.

---

Sol was an actor, and a good one too. The year I was born he was in a huge film called the Wizard of Oz. He played a flying monkey!

---

As a five-year-old chimp right out of the forest I didn’t even know what a film was. But as I got older I realized that Sol had a lot to be proud of. In the 1930s chimpanzees were not respected as equals, and there was not many roles for a chimp actor in Hollywood. In fact, most of the flying monkeys in the film were played by humans!

---

Sol and Edith were hard-working chimps and had truly defeated the odds. When they first arrived in New York they lived on the street. Sol got work with a human named Joseph Lorenzo. They performed together as Jo Jo and the Dancing Monkey. Joseph would play an accordion and Sol would dance around with a red fez hat on his head and a tin cup in his hand to collect the money from the laughing crowds.

---

This was painful work for Sol. He considered himself an intellectual and had dreams of performing Shakespeare. But this dancing monkey gig got them off the street, at least.

6

Back to

the

Ship

We spent most of our time on the ship locked up in cages, but we were let out from time to time. When we were close to port they even let us on the deck. That’s where we saw the New York City skyline as we passed the Statue of Liberty .

---

I was only five when we arrived so most of what I’m telling you is based on what my parents told me. But what I’m about to tell you I remember like it was yesterday.

---

My father put his arm around me and pointed to the Statue of Liberty. The tablet she’s holding says ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, he said, but it says nothing about chimpanzees. We are not considered equals here, but don’t ever forget that as living creatures it is our right to be here, and to be free. We will make the most of our opportunities.

7

Marcel

We were not the first Chimpmans to come to live in America. My great-grandfather Marcel Chimpman came to America back in the 1880s. He was a performer in the Barnum & Bailey Circus