Reviews for The Audubon Reader

The average rating for The Audubon Reader based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-07-28 00:00:00 Fred Plaskin I grew up in a remote Canadian village wedged between the sea and the forest, where northern wildlife was abundant, birds especially. In picking up this book, I was hoping to connect with Audubon, so to speak, more than 150 years after his passing. It didn't disappoint: the first-person narrative works wonders in establishing an instant rapport with the explorer. Despite having read the dust jacket beforehand, I had greatly underestimated the amount of space that Audubon's detailed correspondence with family, friends and business contacts would take in this tome, however. In the end, I learned a lot more than I had bargained for, mostly with pleasure, but sometimes with a frown. Let's put it this way: praiseworthy as his life's work may be - and it is, absolutely - it required from the man's wife that she have the patience of a saint. Reading their respective letters, you'll marvel at the intrepid naturalist's projects and sustained efforts, but you'll also feel for poor Lucy, candidly trying to make do with an awful lot of marital nonsense along the way. All added features aside, it remained a genuine pleasure to get better acquainted throughout this book with all manners of birds - swallows, owls, woodpeckers, wild turkeys and puffins, just to name a few - but also with other animals on occasion, such as alligators and buffaloes. This is essentially what I came here for, and I leave satisfied. It is interesting to note that Audubon expressed displeasure with other naturalists who studied their subjects mostly in terms of measurable facts, paying attention almost exclusively to length, weight and color, for instance, while there was so much more to interpret in terms of the feeding and mating habits of various species, or in their reaction to the ever-increasing presence of man. Audubon's own work provides generous impressions on those matters at a time when America was fast developing and it comes out all the richer from it. It is of no small interest either that in trying best to put to paper meaningful observations, he would describe the techniques he used in approaching birds, even sometimes in taming them. He would also express his appreciation of different terrains or relate the wisdom he collected here and there from Natives, all of which successfully contribute today in bringing back to life before your very eyes the microcosms he was then applying himself to describe. What comes across most brilliantly of all in the ambitious explorer's accounts of his encounters with wildlife is that he witnessed a fair measure of intelligence in animals. He chose to report it as is and drew his own conclusions, refusing to pander instead to popular belief and to depict birds and other critters as mere objects populating the world, sentient at best but operating solely on instinct. I love him for it. Don't forget, this was almost 200 years ago and to this day we still debate those questions. Just as much as John James Audubon was generous in his observations, whether about nature or society, in turn Richard Rhodes proves himself quite thorough in collecting interesting material and organizing it efficiently in this book. If you've ever dreamt of the long-lost days of naturalists and explorers - I mean the antiquated idea of it, rooted in a time when world discovery still afforded to be romanticized somehow - this book should truly hit the spot. I finished reading it in a park on a fine summer morning, at sunrise, with birds singing from the branches of a honey locust, just above my head; while I hate to admit that I couldn't identify those particular birds simply from their songs, the moment was perfect, regardless.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-05-20 00:00:00 Yukon Dave Fascinating naturalist and his travels in early America. It is written in a manner that will take you there. A great way to develop an appreciation of Nature.