3. read 30 books in 2005

10 down, 20 to go

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

This was my Chautauqua book because Audubon was one of the featured characters. I saw Richard Johnson portray him twice, once at the evening session and once at a school program. It turned out that I spent so much time going to sessions that I only read about half of it last week. But today was my recovery day and I was able to finish it.

The book takes readers on Audubon's amazing journey through the natural world of early 19th century America, particularly Kentucky and Louisiana. We see unimaginably large flocks of Carolina parakeets and passenger pigeons. We wait on the edge of a cliff for an enormous eagle that Audubon eventually calls Bird of Washington and Souder makes an almost convincing case may actually have existed and is not, as is generally supposed, a case of misidentifying the juvenile bald eagle. We learn how Audubon posed dead birds in lifelike positions as models for his drawings. The latter part of the book, and Audubon's life, is somewhat less adventurous (although he still manages some wilderness travels) but contains fascinating details about producing Birds of America, Audubon's famous work.