In this compelling, scholarly new biography of the famous French-American naturalist and painter, Peter B. Logan recounts John James Audubon’s pivotal journey to Labrador— without which his epic work, The Birds of America, would never have been completed.
In 1833, the man who would become America’s greatest naturalist was beginning to doubt that he would ever finish his landmark illustrated book, The Birds of America. He still needed to find and paint scores of species, and not even half of the 400 prints promised to subscribers of the serialized work had been delivered. The uncharted shores of Labrador, with its vast avian riches, beckoned. However, approaching the age of fifty and in weakened health, Audubon questioned if he could make another grueling journey. His devoted wife, Lucy, feared for his life. Other obstacles also loomed. Robert Havell Jr., the brilliant London engraver and printer who had brought Audubon’s vision to life, was ready to quit.
At the same time, the naturalist’s harshest critic in England had just unleashed a vitriolic attack on him in Britain’s foremost natural history journal. Half a world away, Audubon was unable to respond. Still, he remained determined to finish the book that would cement his reputation as America’s preeminent naturalist, and in June of 1833 he set sail for Labrador. Meticulously researched over the course of a decade, Logan brings this long-overlooked, yet pivotal expedition to light. With the reader alongside at the most critical moments of his career, Audubon is revealed as his closest friends knew him—dynamic, gregarious, and utterly indomitable, while simultaneously insecure, egotistical, and not beyond stretching the truth when it suited him.
Addressing historical errors made by previous biographers and supplemented with numerous maps and illustrations, as well as an appendix of never before published documents, Audubon: America's Greatest Naturalist and His Voyage of Discovery to Labrador rewrites the unforgettable story of the iconic American Woodsman, whose passion and purpose produced an enduring monument to natural history that remains unmatched to this day.