Traces the life of John James Audubon, his efforts to record the wild birds of North America, and his fifteen-year struggle against a conventional scientific establishment to find a publisher for his masterwork, "The Birds of America." In the century and a half since John James Audubon's death, his name has become synonymous with wildlife conservation and natural history. But few people know what a complicated figure he was -- or the dramatic story...

Streshinsky researched Audubon's journals and letters in order to present this view of Audubon and his wife Lucy and their two sons as they traveled through the frontier, and as Audubon pioneered drawing from nature.

A brief biography of naturalist and artist John James Audubon, focusing on his first visit to America, his love of birds, and his discoveries about bird migrations.

"John James Audubon's passion for birds inspired a national movement to protect birds and their habitats. As a child, John would often skip school to roam the countryside. He collected bird nests, unique stones, bits of moss, and other items of interest and developed his talent for creating dramatic bird portraits and skills for observing them in the wild. Using his abilities as an acute observer, skilled writer, and exceptional artist, Audubon wrote...

John James Audubon's story is dramatic and surprising. He was not born in America, but saw more of the North American continent than virtually anyone alive. His growing apprehension about the destruction of nature became his prophecy. As an artist and naturalist his achievements were monumental. John James Audubon: Drawn from Nature creates a meaningful portrait of Art and Science in the first decades of the 19th century.

"Amateurs and professionals studying birds at the end of the nineteenth century were a contentious, passionate group with goals that intersected, collided and occasionally merged in their writings and organizations. Driven by a desire to advance science, as well as by ego, pride, honor, insecurity, religion and other clashing sensibilities, they struggled to absorb the implications of evolution after Darwin. In the process, they dramatically reshaped...