John James Audubon: Writings and Drawings (Library of America) (Hardcover)

From Library Journal
Much of Audubon's other fine writings have been overshadowed by his venerable Birds of America. This volume, however, gives his journals, memoirs, and letters a chance to shine. The book also sports 45 gorgeous color sketches. Readers will undoubtedly find themselves wanting to do some nesting of their own with this marvelous work.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

John James Audubon: The Making of an American by Richard Rhodes (Paperback - April 11, 2006)

From Publishers Weekly
Born in 1785 in Saint Domingue (now Haiti), the bastard son of a French naval officer and a chambermaid, Audubon was taken to France by his father and then sent to America in 1803 to escape conscription into Napoleon's army. He began drawing birds as a child, and in America this passion grew into an obsession. His business ventures failed, and he was often short of money, but for him, birds overshadowed everything except his devotion to his wife, Lucy, who encouraged him in all his endeavors and supported the family when he went on quests for new birds to paint. Traveling into the American wilderness, Audubon, completely at home on the frontier, observed birds endlessly, and in 1826 set off for Europe to spend years promoting his multi-volume Birds of America. His life makes an engaging story, and Pulitzer Prize winner Rhodes (The Making of the Atomic Bomb) chronicles every aspect of it, the commonplace as well as the audacious, in this thoroughly researched biography. Rhodes's prose style is subtle, enlivened by passages from Audubon's own letters and journals, and he presents an agreeable picture of a man who charmed almost everyone he met, remained devoted to his wife even though he abandoned her for years at a time and was not above lying about his birth and other details of his life. Perhaps most important, Rhodes succeeds in shedding light on how Audubon perfected his ability to capture in his depictions of birds so much life and emotion that they transcend traditional wildlife painting. Illus. throughout; 16 pages of photos not seen by PW. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Boy Who Drew Birds: A Story of John James Audubon (Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12 (Awards)) (Hardcover)
by Jacqueline Davies (Author), Melissa Sweet (Illustrator)

From School Library Journal
Grade 2-4–This readable account focuses on a short period in the famous naturalist's youth. Audubon, who was born and raised in France, was sent to America at age 18 to avoid service in Napoleon's army. Living in his father's farmhouse in Pennsylvania, he roamed the countryside and observed nature. His interest in birds and their migration habits led him to watch a family of pewee flycatchers (Eastern Phoebes) that nested in a limestone cave nearby. In order to determine whether the same creatures returned each year, he banded the young birds with silver thread before they flew south in autumn, providing a means of identification when they returned in spring. Davies relates how the self-taught painter and ornithologist combined his artistic talent and keen skills of observation to produce detailed, life-sized portraits of birds "alive and moving." Sweet's extensive research is evident in her carefully crafted, mixed-media artwork, which includes photos of found objects, re-created pages from a nature sketchbook, maps, and watercolor paintings of young Audubon in the rolling Pennsylvania countryside. Students writing reports can find further information in Peter Anderson's John James Audubon: Wildlife Artist (Sagebrush, 1996). The Boy Who Drew Birds is a wonderful and accessible introduction to a man who made a great impact on the science of ornithology.–Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Into the Woods: John James Audubon Lives His Dream (Hardcover)
by Robert Burleigh (Author), Wendell Minor (Illustrator)

From Publishers Weekly
Having previously written about Thoreau, Lindbergh and Babe Ruth, Burleigh continues his series of biographies of famous men in this poetic picture book about John James Audubon (1785-1851), sumptuously illustrated by Minor. The volume begins with advice to Audubon from his father: " `Be a store owner,' his father said./ But John went to the woods instead." As an author's note explains, what follows is Burleigh's imagined response, penned by Audubon in a letter to his father, in an ornate 19th-century style with rhymed couplets: "O father, dear Father, to me it seems/ No one can fail who holds to his dreams." The flow of the narrative parallels quotations from the naturalist's journals, just as Audubon's own paintings sometimes appear as spot art to mirror Minor's illustrations. Author and artist present Audubon as both idealistic and gentle, and though he doesn't "save every cent" as his father wants him to, he ends up "saving" in his artwork the disappearing world he observes ("And I must paint it all because/ We need this memory of what was"). His philosophy wafts through the volume like a summer breeze. Minor breathtakingly captures a landscape with a blue heron in the marsh as easily as a close-up of a dying dove, alongside a poem deft and sure. Nature-lovers and budding artists will want to know about this one. Ages 6-up.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

John James Audubon and The Birds of America: A Visionary Achievement in Ornithology Illustration (Hardcover)
by Lee A. Vedder (Author)

Book Description
John James Audubon's sumptuous four-volume edition of Birds of America, published between 1827 and 1838, contains 435 hand-colored life-size prints of 1,065 individual American birds. A glorious union of science and art, it remains an unequaled achievement in ornithology illustration.
In tracing Audubon's quest to produce this groundbreaking work, Vedder draws on the artist and naturalist's own writings and the latest scholarship on his life and on Birds of America. Plates from the Huntington Library's double-elephant folio are reproduced in color, including the wild turkey, Baltimore oriole, bald eagle, and (once presumed extinct) ivory-billed woodpecker. Vedder provides with each plate a commentary on the unique characteristics of the species depicted, based on Audubon's own observations in the field.

About the Author
Lee A. Vedder is the Luce Curatorial Fellow in American Art at the New York Historical Society in New York City, serving as the primary curator of its painting and sculpture collections. She holds a Ph.D. in art history from the University of Maryland and specializes in British and American art of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Audubon Art Prints: A Collector's Guide to Every Edition

By Far the most comprehensive guide available to the bird and quadruped prints of John James Audubon.

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John James Audubon
Portfolio

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The Double Elephant Folio
The Story of Audubon’s Birds of America
by Waldemar Fries

Often called “the Bible of Audubon scholars”, The Double Elephant Folio is being re-published after more than 30 years. This important book details the creation of the Birds of America from 1826-1839 and provides information concerning original subscribers and the provenance of all sets known to exist in 1973.

The 2005 edition includes an additional appendix updating the status and location of the sets, both complete and incomplete, currently known to exist. The new appendix was researched and written by Susanne M. Low, author of A Guide to Audubon’s Birds of America and an associate in the Department of Ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History.

First Edition copies of this book sell for over $500 and nearly impossible to find!

The special edition with updated status and location of known sets retails for only $84.95

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Print Collecting; Selecting, Evaluating and Caring for Fine Prints
by Silvie Turner

Price: $ 30.00

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Handbook of Audubon Prints

Price: $13.56

This book is extremely helpful in identifying and understanding the production of all of Audubon's works. If you have an Audubon print and wonder what edition it is or where to start in finding its value then this is the book for you.