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Read Under A Wild Sky: John James Audubon And The Making Of The Birds Of America (2005)

Under a Wild Sky: John James Audubon and the Making of The Birds of America (2005)

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3.97 of 5 Votes: 3
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ISBN
0865477264 (ISBN13: 9780865477261)
Language
English
Publisher
north point press

Under A Wild Sky: John James Audubon And The Making Of The Birds Of America (2005) - Plot & Excerpts

I guess I started with a preconception based on the Audubon name being used for a philanthropic environmental conservation organization. I expected him to be ahead of his time in this way. He was not. In fact his obsession with birds bled into cruelty towards them. I understand that he needed to kill birds in order to study and paint them. I understand that it was a different time and that birds were more plentiful than they are now. But his interest in hunting went beyond scientific curiosity. In addition, he was not exactly a stand-up guy. He was a wandering, absent, unstable family man and an insecure yet boastful liar. No doubt he made a huge contribution to science. His technique of painting birds at life size and his way of representing his subjects within their habitats were original. But many of his conclusions about animal behavior turned out to be false. I would have appreciated it if more images of his work had been included in the book. About a third of the book was not even about Audubon but about his competitors. At a time in history when many things we take for granted today were next to impossible (like having to hand paint engravings for reproduction rather than run them off on a copier), Audubon did manage to accomplish a lot. He traveled extensively and often. It's hard to imagine even wanting to travel the distances he did when most of it was by boat, on foot, or on horseback.

A beautiful read on the life, times and adventures of John James Audubon. I enjoyed the story of Audubon's long journey and struggle. While he lived life large, Audubon achieved fame only in the later years of life and indeed after his death, after publishing "Birds of America". The only quarrel I have with him is that he wasn't the best example of a good family man. He was actually very selfish preferring to spend time alone versus raising his kids. Overall I think that "Under a wild sky" would make quite a film being both a good story and taking place in a period of discovering the great continent of America.

What do You think about Under A Wild Sky: John James Audubon And The Making Of The Birds Of America (2005)?

This is a fascinating biography of Audubon, as well as a riveting history of America. Newly printed by Milkweed Editions, Under a Wild Sky is a must-read for lovers of birds, science, and life in the 1800s. Souder, who is an award-winning author, has written a lushly detailed book that is a joy to read especially due to the mind-blowing amount of research he did that affords the reader the chance to really know what it was like to live during the early years of our nation. My only regret is that I won't ever get to see some of these birds in the wild. Thankfully, we have Audubon's prints to admire.
—Diane Prokop

It is our good fortune that the members of today's eponymous society of bird lovers do not follow the "birding" methods of John James Audubon. During his life he sent great numbers of our feathered friends to an early end. For, while most early Americans hunted to feed themselves, Audubon went well beyond hunting for survival and felled birds in great numbers to skin, disect, stuff and paint them, or mail them off to curious friends. Sometimes, by his own admission in his voluminous notes, he shot them just for the hell of it. On one occasion he bemoaned the fact that his gun jammed after killing only two pelicans, when he intended to kill a lot more.But he was a man of his times, and it was common for farmers to blast away at flocks of Carolina Parakeet until no more were in sight. The Passenger Pigeon was similarly devalued and massacred, with the result that those two lovely species were soon extinct.To his credit, Audubon found the practice of wholesale buffalo slaughter repulsive and refused to take part.Aside from the above, the book is a fascinating biopic of the man and his times, and of the tribulations he and his wife endured in bringing to fruition his beautiful master work "The Birds of America." It also lays bare the historic roots of the atavistic behavior still witnessed in many Americans... hunting for 'fun.'
—Ronald

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