The Audubon Reader

The Audubon Reader PDF Author: John James Audubon
Publisher: Everyman's Library
ISBN: 9781857152845
Category : Animal painters
Languages : en
Pages : 631

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Book Description
John James Audubon (1785-1851) was for half a century America's dominant wildlife artist. His seminal Birds of America, a collection of 435 life-size prints, is still a standard work, and the name Audubon remains synonymous with birds and bird conservation the world over. Born in Haiti, the illegitimate son of a French sea-captain, he was raised in France and sailed to America at the age of 18 where he went into business and began his study of birds. In 1819 he was briefly jailed for bankruptcy; with no other prospects, he set off on his epic quest to depict America's avifauna, with nothing but his gun, artist's materials, and a young assistant. Floating down the Mississippi, he lived a rugged hand-to-mouth existence while his devoted wife, Lucy, earned money as a tutor to wealthy plantation families. In 1826 he sailed with his partly finished collection to England. Lionized as the 'American woodsman', he hit just the right Romantic note for the era, and was an overnight success, finding printers for his book first in Edinburgh, then London. It was a classic American tale of triumph over adversity. Here are vivid 'bird biographies', his correspondence with Lucy, journal accounts of his dramatic river journeys and hunting trips with the Osage Indians, and a generous sampling of brief stories that have long been out of print, 'The Burning of the Forests' and 'Kentucky Barbecue on the Fourth of July' among them. The Audubon Reader is an unforgettable encounter with early America: with its wildlife and birds, with its people and its primordial wilderness.

The Audubon Reader

The Audubon Reader PDF Author: John James Audubon
Publisher: Everyman's Library
ISBN: 1400043697
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 666

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Book Description
This unprecedented anthology of John James Audubon’s lively and colorful writings about the American wilderness reintroduces the great artist and ornithologist as an exceptional American writer, a predecessor to Thoreau, Emerson, and Melville. Audubon’s award-winning biographer, Richard Rhodes, has gathered excerpts from his journals, letters, and published works, and has organized them to appeal to general readers. Rhodes’s unobtrusive commentary frames a wide range of selections, including Audubon’s vivid “bird biographies,” correspondence with his devoted wife, Lucy, journal accounts of dramatic river journeys and hunting trips with the Shawnee and Osage Indians, and a generous sampling of brief narrative episodes that have long been out of print—engaging stories of pioneer life such as "The Great Pine Swamp," “The Earthquake,” and “Kentucky Barbecue on the Fourth of July.” Full-color reproductions of sixteen of Audubon’s stunning watercolor illustrations accompany the text. The Audubon Reader allows us to experience Audubon’s distinctive voice directly and provides a window into his electrifying encounter with early America: with its wildlife and birds, its people, and its primordial wilderness.

The Audubon Reader

The Audubon Reader PDF Author: John James Audubon
Publisher: Everyman's Library
ISBN: 0375712704
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 666

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Book Description
This unprecedented anthology of John James Audubon’s lively and colorful writings about the American wilderness reintroduces the great artist and ornithologist as an exceptional American writer, a predecessor to Thoreau, Emerson, and Melville. Audubon’s award-winning biographer, Richard Rhodes, has gathered excerpts from his journals, letters, and published works, and has organized them to appeal to general readers. Rhodes’s unobtrusive commentary frames a wide range of selections, including Audubon’s vivid “bird biographies,” correspondence with his devoted wife, Lucy, journal accounts of dramatic river journeys and hunting trips with the Shawnee and Osage Indians, and a generous sampling of brief narrative episodes that have long been out of print—engaging stories of pioneer life such as "The Great Pine Swamp," “The Earthquake,” and “Kentucky Barbecue on the Fourth of July.” Full-color reproductions of sixteen of Audubon’s stunning watercolor illustrations accompany the text. The Audubon Reader allows us to experience Audubon’s distinctive voice directly and provides a window into his electrifying encounter with early America: with its wildlife and birds, its people, and its primordial wilderness.

John James Audubon

John James Audubon PDF Author: Richard Rhodes
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 1400043778
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 544

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Book Description
John James Audubon came to America as a dapper eighteen-year-old eager to make his fortune. He had a talent for drawing and an interest in birds, and he would spend the next thirty-five years traveling to the remotest regions of his new country–often alone and on foot–to render his avian subjects on paper. The works of art he created gave the world its idea of America. They gave America its idea of itself. Here Richard Rhodes vividly depicts Audubon’s life and career: his epic wanderings; his quest to portray birds in a lifelike way; his long, anguished separations from his adored wife; his ambivalent witness to the vanishing of the wilderness. John James Audubon: The Making of an American is a magnificent achievement.

Audubon's Watch

Audubon's Watch PDF Author: John Gregory Brown
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780618257317
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
In 1821, John James Audubon, a tutor on a Louisiana plantation, becomes involved in the mysterious death of the plantation's mistress.

This Strange Wilderness

This Strange Wilderness PDF Author: Nancy Plain
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803284012
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 143

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Book Description
Birds were "the objects of my greatest delight," wrote John James Audubon (1785-1851), founder of modern ornithology and one of the world's greatest bird painters. His masterpiece, The Birds of America depicts almost five hundred North American bird species, each image--lifelike and life size--rendered in vibrant color. Audubon was also an explorer, a woodsman, a hunter, an entertaining and prolific writer, and an energetic self-promoter. Through talent and dogged determination, he rose from backwoods obscurity to international fame. In This Strange Wilderness, award-winning author Nancy Plain brings together the amazing story of this American icon's career and the beautiful images that are his legacy. Before Audubon, no one had seen, drawn, or written so much about the animals of this largely uncharted young country. Aware that the wilderness and its wildlife were changing even as he watched, Audubon remained committed almost to the end of his life "to search out the things which have been hidden since the creation of this wondrous world." This Strange Wilderness details his art and writing, transporting the reader back to the frontiers of early nineteenth-century America.

John James Audubon

John James Audubon PDF Author: John Burroughs
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3387065930
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 110

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Book Description
Reproduction of the original. The publishing house Megali specialises in reproducing historical works in large print to make reading easier for people with impaired vision.

Under a Wild Sky

Under a Wild Sky PDF Author: William Souder
Publisher: Milkweed Editions
ISBN: 1571319239
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 393

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Book Description
In this Pulitzer Prize–finalist biography, the author of Mad at the World examines the little-known life of the man behind the well-known bird survey. John James Audubon is renowned for his masterpiece of natural history and art, The Birds of America, the first nearly comprehensive survey of the continent’s birdlife. And yet few people understand, and many assume incorrectly, what sort of man he was. How did the illegitimate son of a French sea captain living in Haiti, who lied both about his parentage and his training, rise to become one of the greatest natural historians ever and the greatest name in ornithology? In Under a Wild Sky this Pulitzer Prize finalist, William Souder reveals that Audubon did not only compose the most famous depictions of birds the world has ever seen, but he also composed a brilliant mythology of self. In this dazzling work of biography, Souder charts the life of a driven man who, despite all odds, became the historical figure we know today. “A meticulous biography and a fascinating portrait of a young nation.”—San Francisco Chronicle “As richly endowed and densely packed as the forests of Audubon’s day.”—Minneapolis Star-Tribune “Deftly weaves together the story of the self-taught artist and naturalist…with the development of scientific inquiry in the early years of the republic and the lives of ordinary Americans as the new nation spilled westward over the mountains from the Eastern seaboard.”—Los Angeles Times

Writings and Drawings

Writings and Drawings PDF Author: John James Audubon
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 1032

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Book Description
This volume provides the most comprehensive selection of Audubon's writings ever published, along with a portfolio of his drawings.

John Audubon, Young Naturalist

John Audubon, Young Naturalist PDF Author: Miriam E. Mason
Publisher: Young Patriots Series
ISBN: 1882859510
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 122

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Book Description
As an adult, John Audubon was the best known wildlife artist of the 19th century, and his book, Birds of America, is the standard against which all subsequent bird art has been measured. In this story about the artist's childhood in the West Indies and France, John's love of drawing sends him into the fields and woods near his country house in pursuit of winged models. Games and adventures also beckon: John confronts a ghost in the old water mill tower, presents his friend Cecile with a surprise birthday gift (that goes horribly wrong!), and sails off to seek his fortune in America. Special features include a summary of John's adult accomplishments, fun facts detailing little-known information about him, and a time line of his life.

Audubon

Audubon PDF Author: Constance Mayfield Rourke
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Birds in art
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description