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Article: John James Audubon: The Making of an American.(BOOKSHELF)(Book Review)
- Article from:
- OnEarth
- Article date:
- January 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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JOHN JAMES AUDUBON
The Making of an American
BY RICHARD RHODES
Alfred A. Knopf, 528 pp., $30
In 1964, the year Alice Ford published her landmark biography of John James Audubon, a few dusky seaside sparrows were still nesting near Florida's St. Titus River. Now, four decades later, we have a new Audubon biography, by Richard Rhodes, and the dusky seaside sparrow has gone extinct. It is hardly surprising that the nation Audubon knew in 1804 should be different from the America of today, but it is sobering to realize that the America known by Rhodes is quite different from the one known by Ford--and that the one known by Audubon's next ...