Synopses & Reviews
John James Audubon is renowned for his masterpiece of natural history and art,
The Birds of America, the first nearly comprehensive survey of the continents 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, 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.
Review
"Souder renders a fascinating portrait not only of Audubon but of the America he knew, a place so lush and fertile it seems almost mythical. But those drawings foundational American documents prove it was so, and this book makes new and compelling sense of them and their creator." Bill McKibben
Synopsis
FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE
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--as told in this "superb introduction to the artist and the man" (New York Times).
Before Audubon, ornithological illustrations depicted scaled-down birds perched in static poses. Wheeling beneath storm-racked skies or ripping flesh from freshly killed prey, Audubon's life-size birds looked as if they might fly screeching off the page. The wildness in the images matched their maker--a self-taught painter and self-anointed aristocrat, who, with his buckskins and long hair, was both a hardened frontiersman and a cultured man of science.
Tormented by ambiguities surrounding his birth, Audubon reinvented himself ceaselessly. But when he came east at thirty-eight--broke and desperate to find a publisher--he ran into a scientific establishment still wedded to convention and suspicious of the newcomer. 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 William Souder's gripping narrative, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
About the Author
William Souder is the author of three books, including
Under a Wild Sky and
On a Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson. He lives in Grant, MN.