Audubon at Sea: The Coastal and Transatlantic Adventures of John James Audubon

"Audubon at Sea shines a bright light on, and makes visible, three overlooked but significant aspects of Audubon's work and legacy: his writings on waterbirds as they evolved from imperfect to polished and lyrical prose; his seabird drawings, like the unforgettable 'Gannet'; and a new focus especially on the seabirds that are now in peril even if they remain out of our sight. The book adds a significant new chapter in our understanding and appreciation of Audubon as an imperfect and troubled nineteenth-century polymath--an artist, ornithologist, writer. Audubon's work will live on in new debates and conversations, in which Audubon at Sea will play an important role."--Subhankar Banerjee, from the foreword
"These excellent selections are a wonderful reminder of why Audubon's writing deserves to be more widely read. Audubon at Sea is a delightful, captivating book, one that ranges to different regions and seasons, and features not only birds but fish, marine mammals, and many passages of interest concerning fishing, hunting, and collecting practices. Irmscher and King's expertise is impressive, and their introductions are helpful, informative, and beautifully written. The notes are also truly remarkable: extremely well-informed, instructive, and detailed. This is a superb read."--Michael P. Branch, professor of literature and the environment, University of Nevada, Reno, author of "On the Trail of the Jackalope"
"A must-read for lovers of the sea and of avian species plying its waters and gracing its shores--this timely, eloquent collaboration between an Audubon scholar and a noted writer on the sea is a plea to save not only birds and their habitats but also wildlife and planet Earth. In Audubon at Sea, Irmscher and King offer a fascinating porthole to a new perspective on the brilliant artist-naturalist and nature writer as well as his portrayals of waterbirds. Reconsidering Audubon's triumphs and human failings with novel insights, the book celebrates the waterbirds of his Birds of America against a historical maritime and scientific backdrop. In the process, it makes a significant contribution to Audubon studies and underlines, beyond the so-called fallacy of the inexhaustible, the acute loss in biodiversity that threatens the extinction of avifauna."--Roberta J. M. Olson, curator and author of numerous books, including "Audubon's Aviary: The Original Watercolors for 'The Birds of America'" and two forthcoming on the artist-naturalist
"Audubon may be best known for his elegant illustrations of birds and animals, but he was also a colorful and talented writer, and a scientist, capable of keen observations. King (an MBH&H contributor) and Irmscher have collected a selection of Audubon's lesser-known writings about seabirds and their watery environment, including his journal of a collecting voyage from Eastport, Maine, to Labrador. The editors give context to Audubon's work with essays and detailed footnotes about the man and his many contradictions, including mass killing of birds in order to preserve them."-- "Maine Boats, Homes, and Harbors"
"In a new selection of John James Audubon's oceangoing writings, we sense his obsessive quest to draw every bird he saw, even though he disliked being on the water. . . . Audubon at Sea . . . asks us to imagine this landsman 'challenged, on a deeply existential level, by an environment where he couldn't rely on the instincts that normally made him such an effective observer and hunter of birds.' The focus is on Audubon as writer as much as artist, and the effect is strange and powerful. The texts are impeccably edited by Christoph Irmscher and Richard J. King. (King selected them, Irmscher wrote the eloquent introduction and headnotes, and they collaborated on the wide-ranging notes.) . . . Despite Audubon's lapses into flowery overwriting, the extracts in this volume make for captivating reading, sweeping us from the reefs of the Florida Keys up the Atlantic Seaboard to the icy rocks of the Canadian Maritimes. Everywhere we feel the pressure of his obsessive quest to record and draw every bird he could, and his journals in particular expose all the moody complexity of a man Irmscher describes as 'passionate, outrageous, salty, vain, and brutal, despondent, vulnerable, sentimental, self-ironical, and tender.'"--Jenny Uglow "New York Review of Books"
"While of course best-known for his definitive depictions of American birdlife, John James Audubon also wrote about his extensive travels at sea, from the American South to the shores of England and the frozen Canadian North. This is as much an ecological account as a narrative of his travels, however, with Audubon's concerns for the natural world still relevant today."-- "Bookseller"
"This book has amazing, fascinating, descriptive material, particularly from the coasts of America, and much perceptive insight into the lives of birds."-- "Birdwatch"
"A must have for those with an interest in Audubon and/or marine ornithology history."-- "The Birdbooker Report"
"The book comprises a series of extracts from Audubon's own writings and diaries, together with exquisite line drawings, and twenty color plates showing the finished paintings. Both his writings and illustrations reveal him to have been an acute and perceptive observer of the natural world. . . . Today, when so many of the marine and coastal species face threats from pollution, habitat loss and the climate crisis, we can learn from this master of painting and prose."-- "Country Life"
"This is not a picture book, although there are plenty of Audubon's sketches and reproductions of his finished artwork in these pages. This is a book of Audubon's words, some of which were intended for publication and others which were more private jottings, or accounts meant for the later reading by his family. In our age, some of the accounts here would be Audubon's blog posts...These 300+ pages are full of interest and I very much enjoyed them."--Mark Avery