Under a Wild Sky (55 page)

  
60
   
The bird stands on the limb
Ibid., page 239.

  
61
   
Catesby did his own engraving
McBurney (ed.),
Mark Catesby's Natural History of America
, page 17.

  
61
   
He did this by producing
Ibid.

  
61
   
One uncolored installment
Ibid.

  
61
   
“For the Satisfaction of the CURIOUS”
Ibid.

  
61
   
Linnaeus himself based many
Ibid., page 19.

  
61
   
At the time, there was still much uncertainty
Meyers and Pritchard,
Empire's Nature
, pages 60–61.

  
61
   
Another surprisingly durable theory
Ibid.

  
61
   
Catesby was humbled by
Kastner,
A Species of Eternity
, page 17.

  
61
   
Catesby made all of his drawings
Ibid.

  
62
   
In South Carolina, he lived through
Meyers and Pritchard,
Empire's Nature
, page 74.

  
62
   
After awaking at an inn
Kastner,
A Species of Eternity
, pages 16–17.

  
62
   
He got to know the Philadelphia engraver
Cantwell,
Alexander Wilson
, page 125.

  
62
   
In the spring of 1804
Wilson to Alexander Lawson, March 12, 1804. In Hunter,
The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson
, pages 206–7.

  
63
   
Wilson had taken lodgings near
Cantwell,
Alexander Wilson
, page 114.

  
63
   
The grove was full of birds
Ibid., page 115.

  
63
   
Wilson was sometimes joined
Hunter,
The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson
, pages 217–18. The evidence here is a previously unpublished poem from the summer of 1804, titled “The Beechen Bower.” In it, Wilson speaks of his “love” for Anna, and of her “fair form.” Hunter cautions against any erotic reading of these lines, though it seems natural to suppose some attraction formed between two such companions in the quiet glade. In any event, if Wilson felt strongly about Anna, nothing apparently ever came of it.

  
63
   
Given the more than two hundred birds
Cantwell,
Alexander Wilson
, page 125.

  
63
   
Within two years of his coming to Gray's Ferry
Wilson to William Bartram, March 29, 1804. In Hunter,
The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson
, pages 207–9.

  
63
   
He received a whole basket of
Wilson to William Bartram, March 31, 1804. Ibid., pages 209–12.

  
63
   
He finally decided to kill
Ibid.

  
64
   
On one of these walks
Wilson,
American Ornithology
, vol. I, page xxxiii. The account of this incident is not Wilson's, but that of his friend and earliest biographer, George Ord, who included it in an introduction to a posthumous edition.

  
64
   
“Close application to my profession”
Wilson to an anonymous friend in Paisley, June 1, 1803. In Hunter,
The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson
, page 203.

5. A BEAUTIFUL PLANTATION

  
65
   
Yellow fever had broken out
Ford,
John James Audubon
, page 41. Obviously, Audubon did not contract and develop symptoms of yellow fever on a walk of only a few hours' duration. More likely he contracted it from a mosquito bite while his ship was lying offshore or making way for port.

  
66
   
Audubon's father and Dacosta had
Herrick,
Audubon the Naturalist
, vol. I, page 113.

  
66
   
To the extent that anybody
Ibid., page 101.

  
66
   
It was near the confluence
Audubon,
Ornithological Biography
, vol. I, page ix.

  
66
   
Its shaft was twelve feet
The description of Mill Grove and its grounds is my own, based on a visit in September 2002.

  
66
   
Recent surveys at Mill Grove
Ibid.

  
67
   
In the evenings he practiced
Ibid.

  
67
   
He was always reluctant
Audubon,
Ornithological Biography
, vol. I, page ix.

  
67
   
In a crevice in the rocks
Herrick,
Audubon the Naturalist
, page 106.

  
67
   
Curious as to whether
Ibid., page 107.

  
67
   
Expensive stocks of fancy-bred
Ford,
John James Audubon
, pages 43–44.

  
67
   
It was said that they had
Ibid., page 44.

  
68
   
Bakewell was friendly and
Ibid.

  
68
   
Audubon never forgot that day
Buchanan (ed.),
The Life and Adventures of John James Audubon
, page 8. This account of Audubon and Lucy's first meeting may or may not be accurate. Certainly, it's the authorized family version of the event, having been first reported in the material supplied by Lucy to Buchanan for his biography.

  
69
   
He got to know all the Bakewells
Ford,
John James Audubon
, page 46. This seems as good a place as any to state what may be intuitively obvious: There is less certainty about the events of Audubon's youth than there is about his better-documented later life. Elsewhere I have stated my preference for the biographies by Herrick and Ford over the flimsy and often-suspect materials edited by Lucy and by Audubon's granddaughter, Maria. However, both Herrick and Ford relied extensively on those very sources for much of their accounts of Audubon's early days in America. In other words, where the evidence is slim, Audubon's best interpreters accepted significant material from his worst. In between and since, other biographers, including me, have sorted through these reflected versions of what happened, tweaking the story according to our own tastes and suppositions, and to avoid literal copying. The result is an approximation of the truth—at best—that has passed through a kind of fun house hall of mirrors. The important point is that not too much significance should be attached to which source I have elected to cite here, as they are all equally good—and equally dubious.

  
69
   
On another occasion
Ford,
John James Audubon
, page 47.

  
69
   
He foolishly told the Bakewells
Ibid.

  
69
   
It gave William Bakewell pause
Ibid., pages 48–49. Audubon first took Lucy to the grotto above the Perkiomen in the spring of 1804—incredibly at the very same time that Alexander Wilson was communing with Bartram's niece among the birds and beeches not far away.

  
69
   
One afternoon in late winter
Buchanan (ed.),
The Life and Adventures of John James Audubon
, pages 10–11.

  
70
   
In France, as a boy
From the transcript of a manuscript by Audubon titled “My Style of Drawing Birds,” in the collection at John James Audubon State Park in Henderson, Kentucky. This essay, written in Scotland, was published in a slightly different form by the
Edinburgh Journal of Science
in 1828 under the title “Method of Drawing Birds.” One of Audubon's endearing traits was a lifelong willingness to share his technique.

  
71
   
But when he compared
Ibid.

  
71
   
Audubon later claimed
Ibid.

  
71
   
He marked off the surface
Ibid.

  
72
   
When Audubon got sick
Ford,
John James Audubon
, page 54.

  
72
   
Evidently the two argued
Ibid., pages 51–52.

  
72
   
In truth, Audubon's father had never
Herrick,
Audubon the Naturalist
, vol. I, pages 113–16.

  
72
   
The elder Audubon, having also heard
Jean Audubon to François Dacosta, circa 1804–1805, quoted in Herrick,
Audubon the Naturalist
, vol. I, pages 116–18.

  
72
   
He wrote to Dacosta
Ibid.

  
72
   
In a follow-up letter
Jean Audubon to François Dacosta, March 9, 1805. Ibid., pages 118–19.

  
73
   
He wrote to Dacosta, reassuring him
Ibid.

  
73
   
Only an instant is needed
Ibid.

  
73
   
If this could be accomplished
Ibid.

  
73
   
He demanded funds
Ford,
John James Audubon
, page 55.

  
73
   
After recovering from
Ibid., page 58.

  
74
   
Short of funds, he also
Ibid., page 61.

  
74
   
The elder Audubon, sensing the advantage
Ibid.

  
74
   
In March 1806
“Articles of Association,” a formal agreement between Audubon and Rozier respecting their business partnership, was executed on March 23, 1806, in Nantes. Reproduced in Herrick,
Audubon the Naturalist
, vol. II, pages 344–49.

  
74
   
On April 12, 1806
Ford,
John James Audubon
, page 61.

  
74
   
Rozier found work
Ibid., page 65.

  
74
   
Audubon, in a monumental mismatch
Ibid.

  
75
   
I am allways in
Audubon to his father, April 24, 1807, quoted in Herrick,
Audubon the Naturalist
, pages 159–61.

  
75
   
Convinced they would never devise
Ford,
John James Audubon
, page 69.

  
75
   
Rozier, meanwhile, considered
Ibid., page 68.

  
75
   
Audubon encouraged this view
Ibid.

  
75
   
There are discrepancies in the record
Sharp and Sharp,
Between the Gabouri.
This booklet
consists of various sorts of documents, including the above-mentioned “Articles of Association” between Audubon and Rozier. But it mainly concerns itself with the diary Rozier kept during their trip west. Ambiguities about the date apparently arose in some early translation of the diary from French.

  
75
   
At first they made splendid time
Ibid.

  
76
   
In a place called Walnut Bottom
Ibid.

  
76
   
Audubon and Rozier spent twelve days
Ibid.