The Birds That Audubon Missed, by Kenn Kaufman
After going on a journey through all of human history in Ten Birds That Changed the World, we will now settle in a single period of America’s recent history, in The Birds That Audubon Missed, where John James Audubon, Alexander Wilson, Charles Bonaparte, John Townsend, and other men competed against each other to find all the birds possible in this land in the early 1800’s.
From the publisher:
“Raging ambition. Towering egos. Competition under a veneer of courtesy. Heroic effort combined with plagiarism, theft, exaggeration, and fraud. This was the state of bird study in eastern North America during the early 1800s, as a handful of intrepid men raced to find the last few birds that were still unknown to science.
…Despite this intense competition, a few species—including some surprisingly common songbirds, hawks, sandpipers, and more—managed to evade discovery for years. Here, renowned bird expert and artist Kenn Kaufman explores this period in history from a new angle, by considering the birds these people discovered and, especially, the ones they missed. Kaufman has created portraits of the birds that Audubon never saw, attempting to paint them in that artist’s own stunning style, showing how our understanding of birds continues to gain clarity, even as some mysteries persist from Audubon’s time until ours.”
Our meeting will be Tuesday, May 13th at 6:00 PM via Zoom. The link to the meeting will be sent via email to participants, along with some discussion questions about the book, closer to that time. If you would like to be on the mailing list for the Book Club, please contact Rachel Hudson at lightningdash09@yahoo.com .
