SOURCE: An introduction to Delineations of American

Audubon's wife, Lucy Bakewell.

In the following excerpt, Herrick discusses Audubon's life and works, focusing on the "Episodes" in his Ornithological Biography.

Beyond a doubt John James Audubon was one of the most versatile and striking characters that has ever appeared in our history. In ardor and enthusiasm for the study of nature perhaps no one has ever surpassed him, and no one can measure the influence which his talents and devotion have exerted upon his favorite pursuits.

Until recent years Audubon had been regarded as the Melchizedek of American natural history, nothing having been certainly known up to that time concerning his birth, his parentage and early life. Then the personal letters and family documents of his father, Lieutenant Jean Audubon, were suddenly discovered in surprising abundance...