From Publishers Weekly
Drawing on biographies, journals and letters, Alexander ( Navigable Waterways ) has fashioned a moving poetic account of the early 19th-century naturalist and artist. She takes us through Audubon's life, from the loss of his natural mother in Haiti, to his childhood in France amid the tumult of the Revolution, his unsuccessful business ventures in this country, his commitment to painting "all the Birds of America, / in the size of nature," and his journey to Europe in search of patrons and publishers. The poems are in Audubon's voice, and Alexander does a remarkable job of maintaining a consistent tone, but one that evolves naturally with the age of her subject. Alexander's language has an uncomplicated, lyrical quality that evokes the naturalist's love of nature's organic simplicity. Away from his wife for years at a time, Audubon wrote to her often. In "Letter to Lucy," he writes, "thy presence moves in my mind like a shy bird / that flies before me, bush to bush." Imagining himself a bird in the masterful "Air," he sees "thousands of gannets / surging upward, wings of the closest striking my face, / and I rise, momentarily, with them."
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Audubon was a naturalist, an ornithologist, and an adventurer: "I am a collection of landscapes." Despite the title, these poems do not intend to stand as a biography. Alexander brings a touch of the poet to his story, playing fast and loose with the facts. She is quick to note that "many of the incidents and thoughts in the poems are fictional; others are inventions around a bare fact," and some are assembled from letters, journals, and such, recast in her own language. Audubon's was a curious life, but he enjoyed the world. Often we get the sense in these poems of that quiet, lovely America that Audubon knew. Alexander is sensitive to the details that matter. The artist and scientist is real in these lines, but one senses that much is missing. What we have, though, is considerable. --Louis McKee, Painted Bride Arts Ctr., Philadelphia
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
