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Alexander Wilson

This page lists books by, about, or including illustrations by, Alexander Wilson. The books are ordered by publication date with the most recent at the top of the page.

 

Alexander Wilson: Enlightened Naturalist

Editor: Edward H. Burtt

Bucknell University Press

2016

"Alexander Wilson: Enlightened Naturalist recovers Wilson's literary, artistic and musical pursuits, and the cultural contexts of his life in the Scotland of Robert Burns. It also explores Wilson's scientific and philosophic contribution to American ornithology in American Ornithology; or The Natural History of the Birds of the United States, published in Philadelphia between 1808 and 1814. Alexander Wilson is richly illustrated, links to a web site of audio readings of Wilson's Scots poems - links that are embedded in the ebook - and includes a tribute to the late Edward H. Burtt, Jr., who died shortly before publication."

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Alexander Wilson: The Scot Who Founded American Ornithology

Edward H. Burtt and William E. Davis Jr.

Harvard University Press

2013

"Audubon was not the father of American ornithology. That honorific belongs to Alexander Wilson, whose encyclopedic American Ornithology established a distinctive approach that emphasized the observation of live birds. In the first full-length study to reproduce all of Wilson's unpublished drawings for the nine-volume Ornithology, Edward Burtt and William Davis illustrate Wilson's pioneering and, today, underappreciated achievement as the first ornithologist to describe the birds of the North American wilderness. Abandoning early ambitions to become a poet in the mold of his countryman Robert Burns, Wilson emigrated from Scotland to settle near Philadelphia, where the botanist William Bartram encouraged his proclivity for art and natural history. Wilson traveled 12,000 miles on foot, on horseback, in a rowboat, and by stage and ship, establishing a network of observers along the way. He wrote hundreds of accounts of indigenous birds, discovered many new species, and sketched the behavior and ecology of each species he encountered. Drawing on their expertise in both science and art, Burtt and Davis show how Wilson defied eighteenth-century conventions of biological illustration by striving for realistic depiction of birds in their native habitats. He drew them in poses meant to facilitate identification, making his work the model for modern field guides and an inspiration for Audubon, Spencer Fullerton Baird, and other naturalists who followed."

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Owls

John Gould, Edward Lear, Archibald Thorburn, John James Audubon and Alexander Wilson

Natural History Museum Library / Wordsworth Editions

1991

A selection of illustrations of owls by five of the most famous bird artists from the archive of the Natural History Museum in London. The artists represented are John Gould, Edward Lear, Alexander Wilson, John James Audubon and Archibald Thorburn.

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Ducks

John Gould, Alexander Wilson and J.J. Audubon

Editor: Marcus Clapham

Natural History Museum Library / Wordsworth Editions

1991

A selection of illustrations of ducks by three of the most famous bird artists from the archive of the Natural History Museum in London. The artists represented are John Gould, Alexander Wilson and John James Audubon.

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Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson

Clark Hunter

American Philosophical Society

1983

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Alexander Wilson: American Bird Engravings

Editor: Dean Amadon

Dover Publications

1975

"This volume reprints all 76 plates from Wilson's American Ornithology and the 27 additional plates prepared by Charles Bonaparte for the supplement. The illustrations appear at full size."

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Alexander Wilson: Wanderer in the Wilderness

Robert Plate

David Mackay Company

1966

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Alexander Wilson, Naturalist and Pioneer

Robert Cantwell

J.B. Lippincott Company

1961

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Alexander Wilson, Poet-Naturalist; A Study Of His Life With Selected Poems

James Southall Wilson

The Neale Publishing Company

1906

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The Poems And Literary Prose Of Alexander Wilson, The American Ornithologist

Editor: Alexander B. Grosart

Alex Gardner

1876

In two volumes.

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Difficulties Overcome, Scenes In The Life Of Alexander Wilson The Ornithologist

C. Lucy Brightwell

Sampson, Low & Son

1861

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Lives of Alexander Wilson and Captain John Smith

William B.O. Peabody, George S. Hillard

Hilliard, Gray & Co / R.J. Kennett

1834

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Sketch Of The Life Of Alexander Wilson, Author Of The American Ornithology

George Ord

H. Hall

1828

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American Ornithology: Or The Natural History of the Birds of the United States

Alexander Wilson

Bradford and Inskeep

1808-1814

Published in eight volumes.

Subsequently published in a number of different formats.

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Last updated August 2017