Under a Wild Sky

John James Audubon and the Making of The Birds of America

Paperback, 384 pages

English language

Published June 16, 2005 by North Point Press.

ISBN:
978-0-86547-726-1
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OCLC Number:
60884479

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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 …

3 editions

Subjects

  • Naturalists, Gardeners, Environmentalists
  • Biography & Autobiography
  • Bibles
  • Biography/Autobiography
  • Birds & Birdwatching - General
  • Nature / Animals
  • Adventurers & Explorers
  • Animals