John James Audubon: The Making of an American by Richard Rhodes

The artist as immigrant entrepreneur in the early republic

American author Richard Rhodes won the Pulitzer Prize for his 1986 book The Making of the Atomic Bomb. He has subsequently written a few more books on the Cold War, the arms race, nuclear energy, and nuclear terrorism, thus carving out a niche for himself in that area. In 2004, however, Rhodes played against type by publishing a biography of John James Audubon (1785–1851), the French-American artist and ornithologist whose paintings of American birds comprise what may be the greatest coffee-table book ever published, The Birds of America. In his ambitious biography John James Audubon: The Making of an American, Rhodes provides a complete life and times that not only recounts the fascinating events of this great artist’s life but also reveals much about American society and westward expansion during Audubon’s lifetime.

I had previously read William Souder’s biography of Audubon, Under a Wild Sky, which was also published in 2004. Souder concentrates more on Audubon as a naturalist, and places much emphasis on the making of The Birds of America book. Rhodes’s book is more of a full cradle-to-grave biography that leaves no stone unturned. All periods of Audubon’s life, from birth to death, are treated with more or less equal attention. Rhodes clearly wants to write the definitive biography of Audubon and is therefore hesitant to leave anything out. As a result, Audubon’s early business ventures and extensive travel itineraries are covered in great detail, whether those ventures were fruitful or not. The text is also peppered with plenty of mini-biographies of every brother-in-law, cousin, or casual acquaintance. This comprehensive omit-nothing treatment reminds me of Ron Chernow’s biographies of Alexander Hamilton and George Washington. The advantage is you learn a lot, but a compelling narrative can sometimes get bogged down in too much encyclopedic detail.

Much discussion is devoted to Audubon’s marriage. The artist was separated from his wife, Lucy Bakewell Audubon, for years as he finished and promoted The Birds of America in Europe while she remained in America. Lucy earned a living as a teacher and raised their children, often facing financial hardship, while Audubon pursued his dream project in the hopes of future financial security. Souder makes Audubon out to be the villain in that story, a man who basically neglected his wife and kids. Rhodes, on the other hand, paints Audubon as a lonely lover constantly begging his wife to join him in Europe, only to be inexplicably refused again and again. Either way, I got more marital drama than I really wanted. Both Souder and Rhodes mine the couple’s prolific correspondence to provide blow-by-blow accounts of this transatlantic marital tug of war, when really some more concise summarization would have sufficed.

Rhodes’s biography of Audubon is not just for bird lovers. (In fact, bird lovers might prefer Souder’s book). As the subtitle indicates, this book will also appeal to readers of American history for the light it sheds on the Early Republic and the antebellum South. Rhodes doesn’t so much emphasize Audubon the artist or the ornithologist but rather Audubon the entrepreneur. Like many immigrants, Audubon came to America for a better life but found more struggle than manna from heaven. To pursue his American dream, Audubon had to navigate the frequently unstable and precarious economic climate of a young nation with growing pains. In John James Audubon, Rhodes delivers almost a dual biography of the man and the nation growing up together. Though the narrative sometimes gets dry at times, it’s an informative history lesson.  

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Under a Wild Sky: John James Audubon and the Making of The Birds of America by William Souder

Three lives: Audubon, Wilson, and Mrs. Audubon

William Souder’s 2004 book Under a Wild Sky is a very good biography of John James Audubon, if you don’t mind the fact that a third of the book is actually about Alexander Wilson, Audubon’s predecessor as the most hallowed name in American ornithology. I didn’t mind, but Wilson has such a huge role in this book, the first half of which is essentially a dual biography, that it seems misleading to leave his name out of the subtitle. What the subtitle does indicate correctly, however, is that while this book does provide a cradle-to-grave biography of Audubon, Souder places the greatest emphasis on the creation of Audubon’s printed masterpiece The Birds of America. To tell this fascinating story, Souder provides a historical overview of American naturalists in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, one that not only focuses on Audubon and Wilson but also includes guest appearances by William Bartram, George Ord, Meriwether Lewis, Constantine Rafinesque, William McGillivray, and several other notable names.

Though it deals with scientific and technical subject matter, every attempt has been made to render this narrative accessible to the general reader, which at times can be the book’s biggest fault. While Souder’s writing is commendably articulate, some passages employ such elementary vocabulary that they read like young adult literature. To bring his subject to life, Souder speculates much on Audubon’s thoughts and feelings, just as a novelist would for a fictional character. Souder also writes for an audience with no prior knowledge of American natural history, so topics like the debate between Thomas Jefferson and the Comte de Buffon about the supposed inferiority of nature in the New World are spelled out in a very simplified manner to get all readers up to speed. Also, all note numbers have been removed from the text so as not to intimidate casual readers, thus making it difficult, especially for the ebook user, to track down a reference.

Once Souder has established the foundation of a history of American naturalism, however, the second half of the book is an improvement over the first. When Souder zeroes in on Audubon’s efforts to make his dream book a reality, the scope changes from broad and shallow to focused and deep. How did Audubon, an enthusiastic woodsman but a lazy businessman, end up establishing what amounted to probably the most ambitious and expensive publishing project in history up to that time? The answer is a fascinating and compelling story of hard work, perseverance, artistic integrity, and some dumb luck. For book lovers, the making of The Birds of America is as engrossing as any well-penned wilderness adventure novel. Souder delves into the technical details of engraving, printing, and the publishing business in a way that is articulate without being dumbed-down. Bird lovers will also appreciate that Souder obviously enjoys birds himself and writes knowledgeably on ornithological matters. When Souder describes Audubon’s first encounters with various species, his enthusiasm, as well as Audubon’s, is infectious.

Souder almost overpowers the natural history narrative, however, with his intense focus on the Audubons’ marriage. While struggling to get his masterpiece published, Audubon was a rather terrible husband and father. Until he found success, the Audubon family was largely supported by his wife Lucy’s teaching career. Souder wants to give credit to Mrs. Audubon where it’s due, but he gets carried away with his coverage of the couple’s romance and marital woes. He feels the need to recount every letter back and forth between the two, when more concision in that area would have been appreciated. Nevertheless, the history of natural history is still the main attraction here, and Souder delivers a biography that will captivate any enthusiast of the subject.
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