John James Audubon
Category: Kindle Store,Kindle eBooks,Science & Math
John James Audubon Details
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
Reviews
What a different story this book gives us than does Wikipedia's current article on Audubon! John Burroughs, himself a naturalist and an obvious admirer of Audubon, published his book in 1902 based largely on his readings of the biographers of his day and of the personal writings of Audubon. Many of the facts in Burroughs' book directly conflict with those in Wikipedia: as one early example, Burroughs has Audubon born in Louisiana in 1780, while Wikipedia places his birth in Haiti five years later.While today's research into Audubon's life may challenge the details in Burroughs' book, Burroughs makes Audubon come alive for us. We wander the woods with him, we agonize over the repeated loss of his paintings (by fire, by rodents, by poor storage), we chafe at his poor business decisions, we delight in his discovery of new birds and new painting techniques, we are distressed at his difficulties in gaining subscribers for his Birds of America.Wikipedia reports that "with his wife's support, in 1826 at age 41, Audubon took his growing collection of work to England." In Burroughs' book, we realize how very much Lucy contributed to Audubon's life and work - from her teaching him English upon his arrival in the US to her financial support of the family, her many moves across the country and long periods alone while Audubon took off on his travels, her unyielding confidence in his talent and importance of his work.One of my (many) favorite sections of the book is Burroughs' comparison of Audubon's bird pictures ("very demonstrative, even theatrical and melodramatic at times") with those of his more conservative contemporary, Alexander Wilson.This book has all the elements of art, history, romance, fashion, business, and nature - all in all, a great read.This Kindle version was downloaded from Amazon at no cost. It is well formatted, but it lacks the illustrations that may be found in the original print version.