A Rare 2 volume edition of Audubon's Whales, Dolphins and Tropical Fishes!
First, Up for consideration is this nice Audubon Society's Field Guide to Whales and Dolphins - (published by Alfred Knopf, New York) 2nd edition (copyright 1983, reprinted 1998)
Let me introduce you to Americas foremost and respected series of nature books ….the Audubon Field Guides. What you are viewing here is the famous leather covered tomes that naturists have been using since 1977!!
Second, is this nice Audubon Society's Field Guide to Tropical Marine Fishes - (published by Alfred Knopf, New York) 1st edition (copyright 1997)
For a nice bio of John Audubon, see below.............also, please my other 2 volume sets of other Audubon Field Guides.
This 700 plus page book covers all aspects of Ichthyology. In the world.......there is an abundance of Tropical Fishes, this book will surely help you ID those hard to find fishes.
The 3 Parts (chapters) are also ....................
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My Book Ratings are as follows:
Mint: New or Like New condition, The overall condition of the book shows little or no sign of use.
Near Mint: The pages are crisp and/or white, and the binding & cover strong & nearly unmarked
Excellent (+) Plus: The pages are not torn, missing or abused. The binding & cover are strong with minimal or little wear.
Excellent: The pages are not torn or missing, but may be slightly dirty or have some greasy prints. The binding & cover are strong , showing only some wear at the corners.
Very Good: The pages are all intact and not abused, but may be frayed at the edge and possibly greasy or dirty from use. The binding & cover are strong but with fraying and/or stains/marks on the cover.
Good: The pages are all there, but with signs of much use. Some may be taped, slightly torn, or show a lot of greasy prints or dirt. The binding & cover are intact, but may be loose or has much fraying at the edges.
Fair: The pages are all there, but may be loose from the binding, torn and/or very dirty from use. The cover & binding are much to be desired, although the book is very much readable and useful for repairs.
John James Audubon 1785-1851
The American Woodsman: Our Namesake and Inspiration
John James Audubon (1785-1851) was not the first person to attempt to paint and describe all the birds of America (Alexander Wilson has that distinction), but for half a century he was the young country's dominant wildlife artist. His seminal Birds of America, a collection of 435 life-size prints, quickly eclipsed Wilson's work and is still a standard against which 20th and 21st century bird artists, such as Roger Tory Peterson and David Sibley, are measured.
Although Audubon had no role in the organization that bears his name, there is a connection: George Bird Grinnell, one of the founders of the early Audubon Society in the late 1800s, was tutored by Lucy Audubon, John James's widow. Knowing Audubon's reputation, Grinnell chose his name as the inspiration for the organization's earliest work to protect birds and their habitats. Today, the name Audubon remains synonymous with birds and bird conservation the world over.
Audubon was born in Saint Domingue (now Haiti), the illegitimate son of a French sea captain and plantation owner and his French mistress. Early on, he was raised by his stepmother, Mrs. Audubon, in Nantes, France, and took a lively interest in birds, nature, drawing, and music. In 1803, at the age of 18, he was sent to America, in part to escape conscription into the Emperor Napoleon's army. He lived on the family-owned estate at Mill Grove, near Philadelphia, where he hunted, studied and drew birds, and met his wife, Lucy Bakewell. While there, he conducted the first known bird-banding experiment in North America, tying strings around the legs of Eastern Phoebes; he learned that the birds returned to the very same nesting sites each year.
Audubon spent more than a decade in business, eventually traveling down the Ohio River to western Kentucky - then the frontier - and setting up a dry-goods store in Henderson. He continued to draw birds as a hobby, amassing an impressive portfolio. While in Kentucky, Lucy gave birth to two sons, Victor Gifford and John Woodhouse, as well as a daughter who died in infancy. Audubon was quite successful in business for a while, but hard times hit, and in 1819 he was briefly jailed for bankruptcy.
With no other prospects, Audubon set off on his epic quest to depict America's avifauna, with nothing but his gun, artist's materials, and a young assistant. Floating down the Mississippi, he lived a rugged hand-to-mouth existence in the South while Lucy earned money as a tutor to wealthy plantation families. In 1826 he sailed with his partly finished collection to England. "The American Woodsman" was literally an overnight success. His life-size, highly dramatic bird portraits, along with his embellished descriptions of wilderness life, hit just the right note at the height of the Continent's Romantic era. Audubon found a printer for the Birds of America, first in Edinburgh, then London, and later collaborated with the Scottish ornithologist William MacGillivray on the Ornithological Biographies - life histories of each of the species in the work.
The last print was issued in 1838, by which time Audubon had achieved
fame and a modest degree of comfort, traveled this country several more
times in search of birds, and settled in New York City. He made one
more trip out West in 1843, the basis for his final work of mammals, the
Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, which was largely completed by
his sons and the text of which was written by his long-time friend, the
Lutheran pastor John Bachman (whose daughters married Audubon's sons).
Audubon spent his last years in senility and died at age 65. He is
buried in the Trinity Cemetery at 155th Street and Broadway in New York
City.