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

Nancy Plain

U of Nebraska Press, Mar 1, 2015 - Juvenile Nonfiction - 112 pages

Birds were “the objects of my greatest delight,” wrote John James Audubon (1785–1851), founder of modern ornithology and one of the world’s greatest bird painters. His masterpiece, The Birds of America depicts almost five hundred North American bird species, each image—lifelike and life size—rendered in vibrant color. Audubon was also an explorer, a woodsman, a hunter, an entertaining and prolific writer, and an energetic self-promoter. Through talent and dogged determination, he rose from backwoods obscurity to international fame.

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.

Purchase the audio edition.

Contents

• Beloved: 1
• La Gerbetière: 3
• Marsh Wren: 4
• Off the Maine Coast: 6
• America My Country: 9
• Mill Grove Farm Perkiomen Creek Pennsylvania: 11
• Wild Turkey: 14
• John James Audubon: 15
• The American Woodsman: 17
• John James Audubon: 18
• Drawing of Bird Anatomy: 19
• Trumpeter Swan: 21
• Victor Gifford Audubon: 23
• Passenger Pigeon: 25
• Down the Mississippi: 29
• Cliff Swallow: 31
• Carolina Parakeet: 34
• Carolina Parrot: 35
• Great Egret: 36
• Yellowbreasted Chat: 38
• On the Wing: 39
• Yellowbreasted Chat: 40
• Blue Jay: 41
• Northern Mockingbird: 43
• Blackbilled Cuckoo: 45
• Northern Bobwhite and Redshouldered Hawk: 47
• The Birds of America: 49
• Great Horned Owl: 51
• John James Audubon: 53
• Wild Turkey: 54
• Whooping Crane: 56
• Bald Eagle: 59
• Team Audubon: 61
• Eastern Meadowlark: 63
• Roseate Spoonbill: 66
• White Ibis: 67
• Northern Gannet: 69
• Atlantic Puffin: 73
• This Strange Wilderness: 74
• Northern Hare: 76
• Common American Wildcat: 78
• Swift Fox: 79
• Fort Union Trading Post: 81
• American Bison or Buffalo: 83
• John James Audubon: 87
• Audubon Then and Now: 88
• Bluewinged Teal: 91
• Glossary: 95
• Bibliography: 105

About the author

Nancy Plain is the author of numerous children’s books, including Light on the Prairie: Solomon D. Butcher, Photographer of Nebraska’s Pioneer Days (available in a Bison Books edition), winner of the Spur Award for Best Western Juvenile Nonfiction, the Nebraska Book Award for Youth Nonfiction and the Will Rogers Medallion Award.

Bibliographic information

• Title: This Strange Wilderness: The Life and Art of John James Audubon
• Author: Nancy Plain
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: U of Nebraska Press, 2015
• ISBN: 0803248849, 9780803248847
• Length: 112 pages
• Subjects: Juvenile Nonfiction / Animals / Birds; Juvenile Nonfiction / Biography & Autobiography / Art; Juvenile Nonfiction / Biography & Autobiography / Historical