Missouri River Journals of John James Audubon

Historians, biographers, and scholars of John James Audubon and naturalhistory have long been mystified by Audubon’s 1843 Missouri River expedition,for his journals of the trip were thought to have been destroyedby his granddaughter, Maria Rebecca Audubon. Daniel Patterson is thefirst scholar to locate and assemble three important fragments of the 1843Missouri River journals—and here he offers a stunning transcriptionand critical edition of Audubon’s last journey through the American West.
Patterson’s new edition of the journals unknown to Audubon scholarsand fans offers a significantly different understanding of the very core ofJohn James Audubon’s life and work. Readers will be introduced to a moreauthentic Audubon, one who was concerned about the disappearance ofAmerica’s wild animal species and yet also loved to hunt and display hisprowess in the wilderness. This edition reveals that Audubon’s famouslate conversion to conservationism on this expedition was, in fact, a literaryfiction. Maria Rebecca Audubon created this myth when she rewroteher grandfather’s journals for publication to make him into a visionaryconservationist. In reality these journals detail almost gratuitous huntingpredations throughout the course of Audubon’s last expedition.
The Missouri River Journals of John James Audubon is the definitivepresentation of America’s most famous naturalist on his last expeditionand assesses Audubon’s actual environmental ethic amid theconflicted relationships with the natural world he so admired anddepicted in his iconic works.