Under a wild sky : John James Audubon and the making of the Birds of America / William Souder.
2004
QL31.A9 S68 2004 (Mapit)
Available at General Collection
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Details
Title
Under a wild sky : John James Audubon and the making of the Birds of America / William Souder.
Author
Souder, William, 1949-
Edition
1st ed.
ISBN
0865476713 (hc ; alk. paper)
9780865476714 (hc ; alk. paper)
0865477264
9780865477261
9781571313553
1571313559
9780865476714 (hc ; alk. paper)
0865477264
9780865477261
9781571313553
1571313559
Imprint
New York : North Point Press, ©2004.
Language
English
Description
367 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Call Number
QL31.A9 S68 2004
Dewey Decimal Classification
598/.092 B
Summary
Traces the life of John James Audubon, his efforts to record the wild birds of North America, and his fifteen-year struggle against a conventional scientific establishment to find a publisher for his masterwork, "The Birds of America."
In the century and a half since John James Audubon"s death, his name has become synonymous with wildlife conservation and natural history. But few people know what a complicated figure he was -- or the dramatic story behind The Birds of America. Before Audubon, ornithological illustrations depicted scaled-down birds perched in static poses. Wheeling beneath storm-racked skies or ripping flesh from newly killed prey, Audubon"s life-sized birds looked as if they might fly screeching off the page. The wildness in the images matched the untamed spirit in Audubon -- a self-taught painter and self-anointed aristocrat who, with his buckskins and long hair, wanted to be seen as both a hardened frontiersman and a cultured man of science. In truth, neither his friends nor his detractors ever knew exactly who Audubon was or where he came from. Tormented by the ambiguities surrounding his birth, he reinvented himself ceaselessly, creating a life as dramatic as his fictionalizations of it. But when he came east at thirty-eight -- broke and desperate to find a publisher for his birds -- he ran squarely into a scientific establishment still wedded to convention and suspicious of the brash newcomer and his grandiose claims. It took Audubon fifteen years to prevail in both his project and his vision. How he triumphed and what drove him are the subjects of this gripping narrative. - Jacket flap.
In the century and a half since John James Audubon"s death, his name has become synonymous with wildlife conservation and natural history. But few people know what a complicated figure he was -- or the dramatic story behind The Birds of America. Before Audubon, ornithological illustrations depicted scaled-down birds perched in static poses. Wheeling beneath storm-racked skies or ripping flesh from newly killed prey, Audubon"s life-sized birds looked as if they might fly screeching off the page. The wildness in the images matched the untamed spirit in Audubon -- a self-taught painter and self-anointed aristocrat who, with his buckskins and long hair, wanted to be seen as both a hardened frontiersman and a cultured man of science. In truth, neither his friends nor his detractors ever knew exactly who Audubon was or where he came from. Tormented by the ambiguities surrounding his birth, he reinvented himself ceaselessly, creating a life as dramatic as his fictionalizations of it. But when he came east at thirty-eight -- broke and desperate to find a publisher for his birds -- he ran squarely into a scientific establishment still wedded to convention and suspicious of the brash newcomer and his grandiose claims. It took Audubon fifteen years to prevail in both his project and his vision. How he triumphed and what drove him are the subjects of this gripping narrative. - Jacket flap.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 349-355).
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Table of Contents
Part one : Audubon and Wilson. Philadelphia
Coming across
A name for every living thing
Lessons
A beautiful plantation
The forester
The exquisite river
Mr. Wilson"s decade
Part two : The Birds of America. At the Red Banks
Kentucky home
Legions of the air
Ever since a boy
Edinburgh
Dearest friend
My great work
After.
Coming across
A name for every living thing
Lessons
A beautiful plantation
The forester
The exquisite river
Mr. Wilson"s decade
Part two : The Birds of America. At the Red Banks
Kentucky home
Legions of the air
Ever since a boy
Edinburgh
Dearest friend
My great work
After.