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This page lists biographical books about John James Audubon. The books are ordered by publication date with the most recent at the top of the page.

Birds Of America:
- Double Elephant edition
- Royal Octavo edition
- Later editions

Ornithological Biography

Other artwork books

Biographical books

Audubon's Journals

Miscellaneous

John James Audubon: The Nature of the American Woodsman

Gregory Nobles

2017

"In this fresh approach to Audubon's art and science, Gregory Nobles shows us that Audubon's greatest creation was himself. A self-made man incessantly striving to secure his place in American society, Audubon made himself into a skilled painter, a successful entrepreneur, and a prolific writer, whose words went well beyond birds and scientific description. He sought status with the "gentlemen of science" on both sides of the Atlantic, but he also embraced the ornithology of ordinary people. In pursuit of popular acclaim in art and science, Audubon crafted an expressive, audacious, and decidedly masculine identity as the "American Woodsman", a larger-than-life symbol of the new nation, a role he perfected in his quest for transatlantic fame. Audubon didn't just live his life; he performed it. In exploring that performance, Nobles pays special attention to Audubon's stories, some of which – the murky circumstances of his birth, a Kentucky hunting trip with Daniel Boone, an armed encounter with a runaway slave – Audubon embellished with evasions and outright lies. Nobles argues that we cannot take all of Audubon's stories literally, but we must take them seriously. By doing so, we come to terms with the central irony of Audubon's true nature: the man who took so much time and trouble to depict birds so accurately left us a bold but deceptive picture of himself."

Audubon: America's Greatest Naturalist and His Voyage of Discovery to Labrador

Peter B. Logan

2016

"By the spring of 1833 …. Audubon still needed to find and paint scores of additional species before he could lay aside his brush. The uncharted shores of Labrador beckoned with rumors of avian wonders, but an expedition to the north would be a severe trial. It was a desolate land, and its brief summer would afford him little time to accomplish his mission. At the age of forty-eight, he questioned how much longer he could maintain the punishing pace his project demanded. His wife, Lucy, feared for his health. Audubon was undaunted …. Through the lens of this heretofore unwritten tale, Audubon scholar Peter B. Logan offers a beautifully textured narrative for historians and Audubon lovers. Meticulously researched, using many previously unknown sources, this groundbreaking book portrays the panoramic sweep of Audubon’s remarkable life, from his illegitimate birth through his aimless early years as a frontier storekeeper to his decision to launch a daring enterprise from which he would emerge as America’s greatest naturalist. At the heart of this saga lies the Labrador expedition. With the reader alongside during the most critical point in his career, Audubon is revealed as his closest friends knew him—dynamic, gregarious, utterly indomitable, while simultaneously insecure, egotistical, and not beyond stretching the truth."

On the Wings of the World: Audubon

Fabien Grolleau, Jérémie Royer

Nobrow

2016

"Audubon’s seminal work, The Birds of America, is considered one of the finest masterpieces of natural history and art. This embellished graphic novel, based on Audubon’s own retellings, not only captures the spirit of early America’s unexplored wilderness but also the rise of this exceptional artist to become one of the greatest natural historians ever."

This Strange Wilderness: The Life and Art of John James Audubon

Nancy Plain

2015

"In This Strange Wilderness award-winning author Nancy Plain brings together the amazing story of this American icon's career and the beautiful images that are his legacy. Before Audubon, no one had seen, drawn, or written so much about the animals of this largely uncharted young country. Aware that the wilderness and its wildlife were changing even as he watched, Audubon remained committed almost to the end of his life "to search out the things which have been hidden since the creation of this wondrous world." This Strange Wilderness details his art and writing, transporting the reader back to the frontiers of early nineteenth-century America."

John James Laforest Audubon: An English Perspective

Christine E. Jackson

"The Birds of America (London, 1827-38) is the largest bird book ever published. Audubon went to England in order to find a printer capable of printing the huge plates, 39" high and 29" wide, showing the birds life-size. The illustrations were printed by Robert Havell in London. Audubon had to find subscribers to his book himself and met aristocrats (25 of whom subscribed), leading industrialists, merchants, traders and professional men in the major towns that he visited. These members of the rising middle classes were influential, cultured men who were also philanthropists. They gave Audubon generous hospitality and assistance. The lives and careers of each of the men who subscribed to The Birds of America and those who befriended him, have been recorded here. Many of them are also now famous. … Audubon's story is an epic, for which he is admired and widely known. What has not been explained is the English social and political background, or the story of the lives of the Englishmen who assisted Audubon. He was honoured and respected by them. For the first time, their part in his story has been told. This is a major contribution to the Audubon archive."

Audubon: The Kentucky Years

L. Clark Keating

2009

"Kentucky attracted an amazing variety of would-be settlers in pioneer days, but none with brighter talent than John James Audubon. Although his years in the state came long before publication of the monumental Birds of America, he was already painting the scenes from nature that were to make him famous. Audubon: The Kentucky Years is the captivating account of Audubon’s sojourn in Kentucky from his arrival in in 1807 as a gregarious twenty-two-year-old storekeeper to his departure in 1819, when his failure in business was about to force him to seek a livelihood from his skill as an artist."

Audubon: Beyond Birds: Plant Portraits and Conservation Heritage of John James Audubon

E. Small, P..M Catling, J. Cayouette & B. Brookes

2009

"In the last 2 centuries, dozens of books have been produced, either stressing Audubon's work as pure art or documenting the animals that were painted. The present volume is unique in emphasizing the plants that Audubon frequently illustrated along with his animals. Full colour reproductions are shown of more than 100 of Audubon's best paintings, chosen for their excellent portrayal of plants. Each magnificent full page plate is accompanied by information on the animals (mostly birds), the painting and (most particularly) the plants. An introductory, extensively illustrated chapter details Audubon's life and career – a fascinating story of heroic achievements in the face of great obstacles. A second chapter deals with Audubon's conservation legacy, a topic of considerable importance to the world's ongoing crises related to loss of biodiversity, degradation of the environment and global warming."

A Summer of Birds: John James Audubon at Oakley House

Danny Heitman

2008

"In A Summer of Birds, journalist and essayist Danny Heitman sorts through the facts and romance of Audubon's summer at Oakley, a season that clearly shaped the destiny of the world's most famous bird artist. Heitman draws from a rich variety of sources - including Audubon's own extensive journals, more recent Audubon scholarship, and Robert Penn Warren's poetry - to create a stimulating excursion across time, linking the historical man Audubon to the present-day civic and cultural icon. He considers the financial straits that led to Audubon's employment at Oakley as a private tutor to fifteen-year-old Eliza Pirrie, Audubon's family history, his flamboyance as a master of self-invention, his naturalist and artistic techniques, and the possible reasons for his dismissal. Illustrations include photographs of Oakley House -- now a state historic site -- Audubon's paintings from his Oakley period, and portraits of the Pirrie family members. A favorable combination of climate and geography made Oakley a birding haven, and Audubon completed or began at least twenty-three bird paintings -- among his finest work -- while staying there. A Summer of Birds will inform and delight readers in its exploration of this eventful but unsung 1821 interlude, a fascinating chapter in the life of America's foremost bird artist."

John James Audubon and the Birds of America: A Visionary Achievement in Ornithology Illustration

Lee A. Vedder

2006

"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 colour, 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."

John James Audubon: The Making of an American

Richard Rhodes

2004

"John James Audubon came to America as a dapper eighteen-year-old eager to make his fortune. He had a talent for drawing and an interest in birds, and he would spend the next thirty-five years traveling to the remotest regions of his new country-often alone and on foot-to render his avian subjects on paper. The works of art he created gave the world its idea of America. They gave America its idea of itself. Here Richard Rhodes vividly depicts Audubon's life and career: his epic wanderings; his quest to portray birds in a lifelike way; his long, anguished separations from his adored wife; his ambivalent witness to the vanishing of the wilderness. John James Audubon: The Making of an American is a magnificent achievement."

Under a Wild Sky: John James Audubon and the Making of the Birds of America

William Souder

2004

"John James Audubon is renowned for his masterpiece of natural history and art, The Birds of America, the first nearly comprehensive survey of the continent's birdlife. And yet few people understand, and many assume incorrectly, what sort of man he was. How did the illegitimate son of a French sea captain living in Haiti, who lied both about his parentage and his training, rise to become one of the greatest natural historians ever and the greatest name in ornithology? In Under a Wild Sky this Pulitzer Prize finalist, William Souder reveals that Audubon did not only compose the most famous depictions of birds the world has ever seen, he also composed a brilliant mythology of self. In this dazzling work of biography, Souder charts the life of a driven man who, despite all odds, became the historical figure we know today."

Audubon in Edinburgh: And His Scottish Associates

John Chalmers

2003

"The American ornithologist came to Britain in 1826 seeking an engraver capable of reproducing his life-sized paintings for The Birds of America. Before trying London, he visited Edinburgh, fell in love with it and found the collaborators he needed. This is a beautifully illustrated account of his stay, with many examples of his art."

Audubon: Painter Of Birds In The Wild Frontier

Jennifer Armstrong

2003

"This picture-book biography tells the story of the 19th-century artist and explorer John James Audubon. Most people know that he painted "The Birds of America" but many don't know what an exciting life he led: narrowly escaping an earthquake, meeting with native peoples and witnessing flocks of passenger pigeons that literally darkened the noon-day sky. Armed with paintbrushes and canvas, Audubon searched the wild for birds and animals, and he captured many of them on paper. Using material gleaned from Audubon's own journals, Jennifer Armstrong tells the artist's story. Along with the illustrations by Jos A. Smith are five of Audubon's own artworks."

Audubon's Elephant: The Story of John James Audubon's Epic Struggle to Publish The Birds of America

Duff Hart-Davis

2001

"Audubon came to England in 1826 to find a publisher for his extraordinary paintings. He insisted that they must be reproduced on double-elephant folio paper - sheets almost 40 inches by 30 - so that even the largest species could be represented life size, and no-one in America had been prepared to tackle such a gigantic task. Drawing on Audubon's journals, letters to his wife and the archives of the families with whom he stayed and worked, Duff Hart-Davis recreates Audubon's twelve years in Britain in search of patrons and publishers. It is an extraordinary story of an obsessive genius and his observations of people, places and events in early nineteenth-century England and Scotland."

John James Audubon in the West: The Last Expedition - Mammals of North America

Sarah E. Boehme

Harry N. Abrams

2000

"Millions of nature lovers are familiar with Audubon's exquisite portraits of birds in his great masterpiece, The Birds of America. Less well known yet of immense significance is a second masterwork by the noted artist/naturalist-a series of illustrations devoted to the four-legged mammals of North America. This splendid volume-created to accompany a traveling exhibition organized by the Buffalo Bill Historical Society, Cody, Wyoming-is the most comprehensive study ever made of Audubon's mammal paintings. The superb draftsmanship and extensive field research that characterize Audubon's famous bird paintings are everywhere evident in the renderings of bison, foxes, deer, and much more. The text, by four noted Audubon scholars, places Audubon's mammals in the context of his life's work and evaluates his enduring scientific, artistic, and literary legacy."

Audubon: Life and Art in the American Wilderness

Shirley Streshinsky

1998

"Dreamer, vagabond, romantic, and genius, Audubon was an archetype of the passionate and steadfast frontiersman. His turbulent life was a fusion of personal daring, tenacity, and boundless devotion to the land he came to love above all. Combining meticulous scholarship with the dramatic life story of a naturalist and pioneer, "Audubon" reexamines the artist's journals and letters in the first new biography of Audubon to come out in almost thirty years. The life of John James Audubon is not only the story of one artist's quest but also a meditation on the origins of the American spirit and the sacrifice that resulted in one of the worlds' greatest bodies of art: "The Birds of America." This is the story of a legendary artist and an eternal American hero."

John James Audubon

Ella M. Foshay

1997

"Illustrated with full-page colour plates of Audubon's watercolors and oil paintings, this handsome volume documents the life and personality of this impassioned observer of the natural world. His images have long been noted for their scientific accuracy, and for the artist's remarkable ability to bring his subjects to life with active poses and naturalistic settings."

Had I the Wings: The Friendship of Bachman and Audubon

Jay Shuler

1995

"Drawing on their correspondence, this text focuses on the relationship between two major 19th-century naturalists, John James Audubon and John Bachman. It provides insights into Audubon's life and work, and reveals Bachman's contributions to American ornithology and mammalogy."

Homage To Audubon: The Illustrated Bird Book 1300-1860

Wesley B. Tanner

The University of Michigan Library

1993

A 16 page booklet produced to accompany an exhibition at the University Of Michigan in June and July 1993.

From the introduction:

"Audubon's Birds of America has very special significance for the University Michigan Library. It was the first book purchased for the collection. The Regents authorized its acquisition on February 5, 1838, and the Library's copy was obtained the following year from William A. Colman, a New York bookseller. The purchase price was the then considerable sum of $970, quite an act of faith for a new university which had yet to hold its first class or erect its first building! Today, six million volumes later, Birds of America remains the single most valuable printed book in the University Library's collection. With this exhibition, we pay homage to Audubon by displaying alongside Birds of America some of the notable illustrated bird books acquired by the Library in the ensuing 155 years."

First Impressions: John James Audubon

Joseph Kastner

1992

Audubon: A Retrospective

Editor: James Dormon

1990

"A collection of essays written to mark the bicentennial of the artist's birth, is a welcome addition to the existing body of literature on John James Audubon. Written by noted authorities on American history, art history, American literature, contemporary ornithology, and the mechanics of nineteenth century art reproduction, these essays examine the most important aspects of Audubon's artistic career: James H. Dormon provides an overview of Audubon's life in "Audubon: The Man and His Milieu." Carolyn E. De Latte investigates the hardships endured by Lucy Audubon and her often overlooked contributions to her husband's success as an artist and as an ornithologist. Audubon's artistic ability matured during the Louisiana phase of his career, a development examined by Kathryn Hall Proby. Gloria K. Fiero assesses the purely artistic merits of Audubon's work, while Lois E. Bannon recounts the manner in which "The Audubon Prints" were manufactured and distributed. Barbara Cicardo evaluates Audubon's significance as an early American writer in "From Palette to Pen: Audubon the Writer." Finally, John P. O'Neill contrasts his own experiences as an artist ornithologist with those of Audubon in "Studying and Painting Birds: Audubon's Time Versus Today."

John James Audubon: A Biography

Alice Ford

1988

On The Road With John James Audubon

Mary Durant and Michael Harwood

1980

Audubon: A Biography

John Chancellor

Viking Press

1978

Audubon By Himself

Editor: Alice Ford

1968

A profile of Audubon based on his own writings.

John James Audubon

Alice Ford

1964

Audubon’s Wildlife: A New Look At The Birds And Animals

Edwin Way Teale

1964

With selections from the writings of John James Audubon.

John James Audubon: Painting America's Wildlife

Janet Stevenson

1961

Audubon And His Sons

Amy Hogeboom

1956

The Story Of John J. Audubon

Joan Howard

1954

John James Audubon

Margaret & John Kieran

Random House

1954

Boy of the Woods: The Story of John James Audobon

Maie Lounsbury Wells, Dorothy Fox

1954

Audubon The Naturalist

Francis Hobart Herrick

2nd edition

1938

Originally published in two volumes in 1917.

Opening lines of preface to second edition: "No less than ten volumes about, or by, Audubon have appeared during the past twenty years, or since the publication of Audubon the Naturalist in 1917, and three of these are more or less extended biographies. Certainly this is remarkable evidence of the curiosity that his adventurous and romantic life has aroused in the reading public, as well as of the engaging beauty of his delineations of animal and plant life."

Audubon: An Intimate Life of the American Woodsman

Stanley Clisby Arthur

1937

Audubon

Constance Rourke

1936

Singing In The Wilderness: A Salute To John James Audubon

Donald Culross Peattie

1935

Audubon The Naturalist

Francis Hobart Herrick

1917

Published in two volumes. A single volume edition that combined the two volumes was published in 1938.

Opening lines of preface: "The origin of the gifted ornithologist, animal painter, and writer, known to the world as John James Audubon, has remained a mystery up to the present time. In now lifting the veil which was cast over his early existence, I feel that I serve the cause of historical truth; at the same time it is possible to do fuller justice to all most intimately concerned with the story of his life and accomplishments."

John James Audubon

John Burroughs

1902

Opening lines of the preface: "The pioneer in American ornithology was Alexander Wilson, a Scotch weaver and poet, who emigrated to this country in 1794, and began the publication of his great work upon our birds in 1808. He figured and described three hundred and twenty species, fifty-six of them new to science. His death occurred in 1813, before the publication of his work had been completed. But the chief of American ornithologists was John James Audubon. Audubon did not begin where Wilson left off. He was also a pioneer, beginning his studies and drawings of the birds probably as early as Wilson did his, but he planned larger and lived longer. He spent the greater part of his long life in the pursuit of ornithology, and was of a more versatile, flexible, and artistic nature than was Wilson. He was collecting the material for his work at the same time that Wilson was collecting his, but he did not begin the publication of it till fourteen years after Wilson's death."

Audubon And His Journals

Maria R. Audubon

Charles Scribner’s Sons

1897

Published in two volumes. Comprises and biography of Audubon plus sections of his journals: The European Journals 1826-1829; The Labrador Journal 1833; and The Missouri River Journals 1843.

Introduction: "In the brief biography of Audubon which follows, I have given, I believe, the only correct account that has been written, and as such I present it. I am not competent to give an opinion as to the merits of his work, nor is it necessary. His place as naturalist, woodsman, artist, author, has long since been accorded him, and he himself says: "My enemies have been few, and my friends numerous." I have tried only to put Audubon the man before my readers, and in his own words so far as possible, that they may know what he was, not what others thought he was."

Audubon's adventures or Life in the woods

B.K. Peirce

1889

From the introduction: "THE adventures of John James Audubon will never lose their interest to young or old. His was one of the most unique characters our country has yet given to the world. Great in intellectual endowment, gentle-hearted, and sincerely devout, he was at the same time so thoroughly original, so full of lively incident was his career, and so vivid were his powers of description, that the mere story of his life is far more interesting than most novels."

Life Of Audubon: The Naturalist Of The New World

Mrs Horace St. John

Revised edition

1884

From the preface: "The materials of this narrative have been derived from Audubon's works, from the recollections of his friends, and from fragments published in the United States. The writer's object has been, exclusively, to follow the adventurous American through those episodes of romance and discovery which constituted his career as a naturalist."

The Life Of John James Audubon: The Naturalist

Edited By His Widow

G.P. Putnam & Sons

1870

Opening lines of the introduction: "In the summer of 1867, the widow of John James Audubon, completed with the aid of a friend, a memoir of the great naturalist, and soon after received overtures from a London publishing house for her work. Accepting their proposition for its publication in England, Mrs. Audubon forwarded the MSS., consisting in good part of extracts from her husband's journals and episodes, as he termed his delightful reminiscences of adventure in various parts of the New World. The London publishers placed these MSS. in the hands of Mr. Robert Buchanan, who prepared from them a single volume containing about one fifth of the original manuscript. The following pages are substantially the recently published work, reproduced with some additions, and the omission of several objectionable passages inserted by the London editor. Should Mrs. Audubon hereafter receive her manuscript, containing sufficient material for four volumes of printed matter, and including many charming episodes "born from his traveling thigh" as Ben Jonson quaintly expressed it, the American public may confidently look forward to other volumes, uniform with this one, of the Naturalist's writings."

The Life & Adventures Of John James Audubon

Edited, from materials supplied by his widow, by Robert Buchanan

1868

From the editor’s preface: "In the autumn of 1867, the present publishers placed in my hands a large manuscript called the "Life of Audubon," prepared by a friend of Mrs. Audubon's, in New York, chiefly consisting of extracts from the diary of the great American naturalist. It needed careful revision, and was, moreover, inordinately long. While I cannot fail expressing my admiration for the affectionate spirit and intelligent sympathy with which the friendly editor discharged his task, I am bound to say that his literary experience was limited. My business, therefore, has been sub-editorial rather than editorial. I have had to cut down what was prolix and unnecessary, and to connect the whole in some sort of a running narrative, and the result is a volume equal in bulk to about one-fifth of the original manuscript. I believe I have omitted nothing of real interest, but I am of course not responsible in any way for the fidelity of what is given. The episodes, wherever they occur, I have given pretty much in full, as being not only much better composed than the diary, but fuller of those associations on which Audubon rests his fame."

Audubon: The Naturalist In The New World: His Adventures And Discoveries

Mrs Horace St. John

1856

Preface: "The materials of this Narrative have been derived from Audubon's works, from the recollections of his friends, and from fragments published in the United States. The writer's object has been, exclusively, to follow the adventurous American through those episodes of Romance and Discovery which constituted his career as a Naturalist. To the criticisms of Waterton and others, on his Ornithology, all reference has been omitted, to avoid controversy on points of scientific detail."