Audubon - by Shirley Streshinsky (Paperback)

About the Book

John James Audubon--the dreamer, vagabond, romantic, and genius--was the archetype of the passionate and steadfast frontiersman. Combining meticulous scholarship with the dramatic life story of a naturalist and pioneer, Streshinsky reexamines the artist's journals and letters to tell the story of Audubon's quest, the origins of the American spirit, and the sacrifice that resulted in one of the world's greatest bodies of art: "The Birds of America". 22 illustrations.

Book Synopsis

The compelling story of a legendary artist and an eternal American hero.

Review Quotes

"A scintillating biography, a richly detailed story of romance, separation, and struggle." -Publishers Weekly

"Streshinsky's riveting new biography . . . infuses this man's career with the same vigorous spark of real life that Audubon uniquely brought to the depiction of America's birds." --Los Angeles Times

"Vividly evokes what it was like to settle in new frontier communities, to travel in America and overseas and to try to earn a living in the economically uncertain early years of the nineteenth century." --New York Times Book Review

"A solid narrative biography, the first popular life of the artist in a quarter century . . . The Audubon depicted here is buoyant, gifted, and vain." --Boston Globe

"A portrait as vivid as any of Audubon's." --San Francisco Chronicle

About the Author

Shirley Streshinsky is the critically acclaimed author of three works of nonfiction and four historical novels. As a journalist and travel essayist, she has written extensively for "Redbook, Glamour, Preservation, American Heritage, The American Scholar, " and "Conde Nast Traveler "and has been featured on NPR. She is the recipient of the Society of Magazine Writers' Award for Excellence and the National Council for the Advancement of Education Writing Award. She was married to the late photojournalist Ted Streshinsky and has three grown children. She lives in Kensington (Berkeley), California.