Customer Reviews

Audubon's Elephant

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Let us say the Book Fairy comes and says you can be given one book, any book you want. Here's my advice: take John James Audubon's _The Birds of America_. Of course you want the original edition, the volumes that appeared between 1826 and 1838. Not only is it one of the most beautiful books ever printed, if you get tired of it, you can sell it. The last one that came up for sale, in 2000, went for $8.8 million. Just about everyone knows about this book, or has seen reprints from it, and has heard of Audubon (perhaps because of the Society that bears his name) and associates him with birds. He has had several biographies, but _Audubon's Elephant: America's Greatest Naturalist and the Making of the Birds of America_ (Henry Holt) by Duff Hart-Davis takes a specific look at the extraordinary book, and how _The Birds of America_ could not have been made in America.

Audubon's own adopted country had no room for his huge project of a book to show all the birds of America life sized. Naturalists at the time actively discouraged anyone's support of Audubon's efforts, and there were not printers up to the task. So in 1826, Audubon sailed with his big watercolors to England. He became a celebrated American rustic, captivating the town of Edinburgh. He went about carrying his huge portfolio which weighed nearly a hundred pounds, slung over his shoulder. The first printer of the work, having see it, responded, "My God! I never saw anything like this before." He was right; Audubon's pictures had size, drama, and color no previous bird pictures even hinted at. The pictures caused a sensation, and Audubon was caught in a whirl of dining and socializing that he enjoyed enormously. The enormous work of getting subscribers, printing the pictures, and getting a team of colorists to hand tint each one was more than Audubon had counted on. He wrote, "I am thrown into a vortex of business that I never conceived I could manage."

Audubon and conservation have become synonymous, but his process of making his art will appall those many who belong to the Society bearing his name. Audubon probably killed more birds than any man in history, saying, "I call birds few when I shoot less than one hundred per day." He liked painting birds in action, but he posed them that way, killing them and mounting them so he could get the action stilled. A companion complained about Audubon working on his turkey painting, "The damned fellow kept it pinned up there till it rotted and stunk. I hated to lose so much good eating." Audubon kept a golden eagle in a cage to observe it, and having it seen alive sufficiently, tried to suffocate it with charcoal smoke, and when that did not work, pierced it through the heart with a pointed steel needle. As Hart-Davis realizes, Audubon did not lust for blood, but for knowledge. Imparting that knowledge through his art was his great goal, magnificently realized. _Audubon's Elephant_ is a much smaller volume than the original it describes, but it is still handsomely produced on fine paper and with fittingly copious illustrations. It is a vibrant account of an artist accomplishing his dream.

I wish I could say which ran out of steam first (if I may use a cliche)--the book or me. "Audubon's Elephant: America's Greatest Naturalist and the Making of the Birds of America" began as such a promising book, but by mid-point I could read no more than a page or two without my mind blanking out from word fatigue.

Yes, I learned quite a bit about Audubon's beginnings, how he came to America to escape Napoleon's armies, how he fell in love with the wildness of America, with its birds in particular. This is a story of one man, who happened to be in all the right places at the right time (and including not-so-right places). His own physique and physical stamina aided him in incredible feats of long distance walking and hunting. His love of the natural world and indomitable curiosity eventually led him into the task that has made him world famous and admired--painting scientifically the birds of America.

But it was not America who would appreciate his work of presenting the birds in their actual size on paper--paper large enough to accurately show that size. The Wild Turkey became the standard for the double-elephant folio.

The creation of this double-elephant book depicting 433 birds of America is the subject of "Audubon's Elephant." As with most artists, Audubon had his quirks. He didn't make much of a living for his wife and two sons, whom he left in America while he sought subscribers for his one hundred pound book first in Scotland, then in England and France. He kept detailed journals and wrote gushing and reflective letters to his faithful wife, even admitting attractions to other women.

I made it halfway through "Audubon's Elephant" before I finally put it down and have begun reading another story of Aududon's arduous efforts to have his book published. This second book, Under a Wild Sky: John James Audubon and the Making of The Birds of America, is a Pulitzer Prize Finalist and written in narrative form instead of lacing together bits and pieces.

Nonetheless, I accept the fault as mine and not that of the author, Duff Hart-Davis, that I had trouble maintaining interest in his book.

The "back story" of a very notable, classic book. Put to rest some tales about the prints Audubon produced so many years ago.