The Audubon Reader (47 page)

[John James Audubon Postscript]

My dear sons, I wish to add my good wishes to those of your dear Mamma; I have been much engaged since at Manchester, but as I have added four names to my list I am quite repaid. I wish very much I had you here with us, and when we are in America must talk the matter over.

The
Duke of Bordeaux has hanged himself.

Edinburgh, Scotland

2 January 1831

My dear friend,

… My first volume is at last finished and I have the whole 100 plates, which constitute it, delivered to my English patrons at least. I sincerely hope that as soon as you receive the title page and page of contents you will honor this, my first volume, with a solid binding cover.

My good wife & I have been residing in fair Edinburgh for these three months, where I have been most industriously engaged in preparing for the press the first volume of my biographical remarks on the birds of my beloved country. I have now rather more than one half ready for the printer—say, about 300 pages of royal octavo—and this work will commence the printing of it in that format.

I think I see a smile on your face at the idea of my presumption, but I could not well help writing something, and as I am truly concerned that the book will be composed of nothing but plain truth, I hope that your smile will continue to the last word, with which I think you will have a fair opportunity to do in April next.

Yes, my dear sir, I have dared to write a book on the manners of the
birds of America … It was my first intention to have been assisted by our learned friend
William Swainson, and I wrote to him on this head in full confidence. However, Friend Swainson so startled me by the demand of a salary too much above my pecuniary means, and at the same time required the appearance of his name on the title page in such an unequivocal wise, that it at once appeared to me as if I must have paid him a most exorbitant price to enable him to reap the benefit of all my observations, things which I could not well afford and in consequence of which, I am trudging on, assisted only by a person who puts into better English than I can myself write, my ideas. I have no wish to plume myself with others’ feathers, but neither am I willing to plume away
the obvious benefit of my observations. Therefore, instead of W. Swainson at the rate of 200 pounds sterling per volume, I am employing Mr. MacGillivray for a little more than 50.

The latter is a good scholar and fond of our study and as all I write is quite simple & true, the book may perhaps be of some benefit to the science of ornithology. I am bent on interlarding the whole with past events of my life & American manners, to render it welcome, if possible, to the common reader, meantime not forgetting the necessary components agreeable or looked for by naturalists of the high classes. But when you have read this first attempt of mine you will be able to judge of its matter fully, & therefore I will not say anymore on the subject.

Yet I must add that I am following your nomenclature throughout & will stick to it! … I would give much at this present time to be by your side & be able to be benefited with your good advice, but this is improbable, & I must do the best I can alone.

What will you think when you have read here that it is my intention to write a synopsis of the birds of the United States? You will laugh, I have no doubt, yet such will be the case, and I have made already the necessary preparations to become able to accomplish this, by preserving in the flesh or spirituous liquors every individual [specimen] found in the extensive U.S.

That synopsis will have plates most correctly engraved of the bills, legs & feet, markings, tails, eggs &c., with descriptions of the birds in different states of plumage & age, in a word all I can collect respecting them. I have not told you all. I am going to America again and I assure you that if life is granted me I will leave no place in the whole of the U.S. unsearched. The fact is that I have devoted so much of my life to this study in my humble practical manner that I am now determined to pursue it with as much ardor as if I were still a young man.

I should be greatly obliged to you if you would send me as soon as convenient a letter of recommendation to your illustrious relation now residing in the Floridas; it is my full intention to traverse the peninsula in 5 or 6 different parts & to spend at least one year along its extensive southern coast. I have also asked of Mr. [and U.S. Representative]
Edward Everett, an old friend of mine, as well as from our President letters to the same effect. I may indeed
proceed to a great distance in the interior of the Northwestern Territory afterward, having made such arrangements in London as will infuse the publication of my illustrations during the whole of my absence, which probably may exceed two years. I shall go accompanied by men fully able to assist me & I look forward to my return in Europe as very gratifying to my enthusiastical ways of working.

Such a jaunt will meanwhile enable me to augment considerably the number of my drawings of quadrupeds, a work which if I do not live to see finished will I hope at least be completed by one of my sons …

I have named the Petit Caporal [
Merlin] in honor of your great-uncle Napoleon to whom I have reason to be greatly indebted …

Edinburgh, Scotland

26 February 1831

My dear Victor,

Only six days ago your Father wrote you on the business of the edition of his letterpress entitled
Ornithological Biography
which, for the sake of security, he has requested to have the copyright of entered in your name as proprietor, which is the case when booksellers purchase the manuscript from the author. Should Dr. Harlan of Philadelphia (your Papa’s agent there) not find this practicable, then the copyright will be secured in his own name, and for the expenses of this publication, which is obliged to be printed in U.S. to affect this, your Papa remitted one hundred pounds sterling along with the first 12 sheets of proofs and letters to Dr. Harlan, Dr. McMurtrie, yourself and William, apprising you of what he was doing, and for the best. The expense necessary for this publication is $700, therefore a balance besides the hundred pounds will be wanting, and we feel assured that that balance will be furnished by you or your uncle … and this package of proof sheets will sail in the
Manchester
on the first of March. Duplicates and fresh sheets will follow in each succeeding packet till the whole is gone; there will be 500 copies in the American edition, a copy of which must appear at Washington City three months after the title of the book is registered there to ensure the copyright, a matter important to us and to you.

If any accident befall us, you will always remember your brother is to share equally any profits from your parents, but I trust we shall meet in autumn, all well, and talk over these and many other affairs. The expense of publishing what is necessary is double the amount that it is with you. To subscribers, the book will be sold at a guinea each [i.e., 21 shillings]; to non-subscribers to the plates or
Birds of America
the price will be 30 shillings each; and it is considered low for a scientific book, which that is. It will be bound in boards neatly.

The booksellers’ profit is always two hundred per cent, but we might be content with one hundred clear; however, it is quite a new business to you, and the two doctors, Harlan and McMurtrie, will determine and let you know. You will, soon after this reaches you if not before, get the colors, canvas, and violin unless they are detained in [New] Orleans. Tell John I hope he will be steady and try to improve as much as possible; without he helps himself by his good conduct he need not expect either credit or friends, and consequently no comfort either. You will calculate how late you can write to us that we may get your letters through Messrs. Rathbone & Co. of Liverpool; we cannot tell yet when precisely we shall sail, nor from what port, for business must lead all things, and the expense of portage here from one place to another is very great.

We mentioned you would get your flageolet either by Mr. Cuthbertson or us, and perhaps some other things, but this
Ornithological Biography
takes a great deal of money away before it begins to throw back any.

Your father begs me to urge you both to preserve all the eggs and nests of birds you can possibly get, blow the eggs and endeavor to mark them, all the skins, all the feet and bills, in short everything appertaining to birds is required by your father to make his work, as the learned say here, the standard of ornithology. But every object in nature has a great value attached to it in Britain, and even Europe in general is now natural-history mad. The age of literature is on the decline, I have read nothing lately but the papers which you will have sent by the packet for the eighth of March …

May you be well and successful in all your undertakings, my dear sons. Your Father joins his blessing to mine, he has many letters to write. The weather is cold but fine today; yesterday we had a fall of snow for some hours, but the sea air so modifies the atmosphere here that it is now all gone, and a day or two ago I had a nosegay of flowers from the garden sent me, amongst which were some snowdrops and crocuses …

You must tell John that the birds [he sent] were very well described, and very rare, in that part where you are, but [although] your Papa knows them and has them, yours are not the less valuable. The moths had got into them a little, be careful about them …

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

20 September 1831

My dear Mr. Havell,

… At our arrival at New York on the 3rd Instant we met with our sister & brother-in-law, Mr. [Nicholas] Berthoud, and went to their house where we spent a week in great comfort …

We received at New York letters from our sons mentioning my eldest one coming to take charge of his mother, over the mountains to Kentucky, and we are awaiting his arrival at this place hourly. As soon as he arrives, we push off for Baltimore, where we will part and I will proceed for the Floridas as fast as steamboats or coaches will allow. Since here (Philadelphia) I have obtained three
subscribers—to wit, the [American] Philosophical Society of Philadelphia,
John C. Wetherill, Esq., and Dr. Richard Harlan of Philadelphia. I have some hopes of a few more. My enemies are going downhill very fast and fine reviews of the work coming forth. The Government will pass an act this winter for the free entry of my works in America. I have already received upwards of 200 letters of recommendation for all parts of the United States and when I reach Washington will have one from Government that will render my visits on the frontiers quite easy …

Wheeling, Virginia

12 October 1831

My dear husband,

We arrived here at half past two in the morning of Monday after bearing the journey much better than I did before. Our travelers were just middling and plenty of them; one named Hunt from Wabash County seems to know you and your book. We found [Lucy’s sister] Sarah within three weeks of her confinement and but for our dear boys I should stay with her; however, I hope she will do well, and most sincerely do I hope you are well and doing well. We hoped to have heard from you here but find no letters. We have in [port] a steamer this afternoon and hope for a safe journey. I must not say much, notwithstanding Victor’s kind affection I miss you, but on this journey, I know, much of your future fame and success depends, for the world has its eyes upon you, my dear LaForest.

But in the midst of fame, remember thy friend of 25 years’ standing [i.e., herself] and the prosperity of our beloved children. I shall write from Louisville to Savannah and hope we shall soon hear from you. Walsh has quoted in the literary gazette half at least of
Blackwood’s
review for you.

Victor is gone down to the boat, but when he comes in he will add a few lines to you. I have not heard from anyone yet. I have nothing more to say my dear husband now, but every good wish that can attend him, to beg he will take care of himself, do nothing that affects his health or intellect, to remember the
three
individuals behind you who are not many minutes without thinking of you and whose happiness is linked to yours forever …

Not a single individual of the numerous persons who have described the birds of the United States seems to have had opportunities of studying the habits of this beautiful Owl, and all that I find related respecting it is completely at variance with my observations. In describing the manners of this bird I shall therefore use all due caution, although at the same time I shall not be too anxious to obtain credit in this more than in some other matters for which I have patiently borne the contradictions of the ignorant. The following extracts from my journals I hope will prove interesting.

St. Augustine, East Florida, 8th November 1831
. Mr. Simmons, the Keeper of the Fort, whom I had known at Henderson in Kentucky, having informed me that some boys had taken five young Barn Owls from a hole in one of the chimneys, I went with a ladder to see if I could procure some more. After much search I found only a single egg which had been recently laid. It was placed on the bare stone of the wall surrounded by fragments of small quadrupeds of various kinds. During our search I found a great number of the disgorged pellets of the Owl, among which some were almost fresh. They contained portions of skulls and bones of small quadrupeds unknown to me. I also found the entire skeleton of one of these Owls in excellent condition, and observing a curious bony crest-like expansion on the skull from the base of the cere [i.e., the nostril membrane of the beak] above to that of the lower mandible elevated nearly a quarter of an inch from the solid part of the skull and forming a curve like a horseshoe, I made an outline of it. On speaking to the officers of the garrison respecting this species of Owl,
Lieutenant Constantine Smith, a most amiable and intelligent officer of our army, informed me that in the months of July and August of that year these birds bred more abundantly than at the date above stated. Other persons also assured me that like the House Pigeon, the Barn Owl breeds at all seasons of the year in that part of the country. The statement was farther corroborated by Mr.
Lee Williams, a gentleman formerly attached to the topographical department and who, I believe, has written an excellent account of the eastern portion of the peninsula of the Floridas.