The Life of John James Audubon, the Naturalist
Category: Books,Biographies & Memoirs,Professionals & Academics
The Life of John James Audubon, the Naturalist Details
This illustrated volume was published in 1870.Excerpts from the book's Introduction:In the summer of 1867, the widow of John James Audubon, completed with the aid of a friend, a memoir of the great natu- ralist, and soon after received overtures from a London pub- lishing house for her work. Accepting their proposition for its publication in England, Mrs. Audubon forwarded the MSS., consisting in good part of extracts from her husband's journals and episodes, as he termed his delightful reminiscences of adventure in various parts of the New World. The London publishers placed these MSS. in the hands of Mr. Robert Buchanan, who prepared from them a single volume contain- ing about one fifth of the original manuscript. The following pages are substantially the recently published work, reproduced with some additions, and the omission of several objectionable passages inserted by the London ed- itor. Should Mrs. Audubon hereafter receive her manuscript, containing sufficient material for four volumes of printed mat- ter, and including many charming episodes " born from his traveling thigh, " as Ben Jonson quaintly expressed it, the American public may confidently look forward to other volumes, uniform with this one, of the Naturalist's writings............................................................................................." The man's heart was restless ; otherwise he would never have achieved so much. He must wander, he must vagabon- dize, he must acquire ; he was never quite easy at the hearth. His love for Nature was passionate indeed, pursuing in all re- gions, burning in him to the last. Among the most touch- ing things in the diary, are the brief exclamations of joy when something in the strange city — a flock of wild ducks overhead in London, a gathering of pigeons on the trees of Paris — re- minds him. of the wild life of wood and plain. He was boy-like to the last, glorying most when out of doors. " Of the work Audubon has done, nothing need be said in praise here. Even were I competent to discuss his merits as an ornithologist and ornithological painter, I should be si- lent, for the world has already settled those merits in full. I may trust myself, however, to say one word in praise of Au- dubon as a descriptive writer. Some of his reminiscences of adventure, some of which are published in this book, seem to me to be quite as good, in vividness of presentment and care- ful coloring, as anything I have ever read." J. G. W. SI St. Mark's Place, New York, April, 1869...........................................................................................John James Audubon (April 26, 1785 – January 27, 1851) was a French-American ornithologist, naturalist, hunter, and painter. He painted, catalogued, and described the birds of North America in a form far superior to what had gone before. Born in Haiti and raised in France as a youth, in his embrace of America, and his outsize personality and achievements, he represented the new American people of the United States.****.....summary from wikipedia
Reviews
I couldn't make it past the first few pages. There are numerous typos in the Kindle version. This is especially annoying since I mostly use the Text-to-Speech.