Tenacious of Life: The Quadruped Essays of John James Audubon and John Bachman

Description

Daniel Patterson and Eric Russell present a groundbreaking case for considering John James Audubon’s and John Bachman’s quadruped essays as worthy of literary analysis and redefine the role of Bachman, the perpetually overlooked coauthor of the essays. After completing The Birds of America (1826–38), Audubon began developing his work on the mammals. The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America volumes show an antebellum view of nature as fundamentally dynamic and simultaneously grotesque and awe-inspiring. The quadruped essays are rich with good stories about these mammals and the humans who observe, pursue, and admire them. For help with the science and the essays, Audubon enlisted the Reverend John Bachman of Charleston, South Carolina. While he has been acknowledged as coauthor of the essays, Bachman has received little attention as an American nature writer. While almost all works that describe the history of American nature writing include Audubon, Bachman shows up only in a subordinate clause or two. Tenacious of Life strives to restore Bachman’s status as an important American nature writer. Patterson and Russell analyze the coauthorial dance between the voices of Audubon, an experienced naturalist telling adventurous hunting stories tinged often by sentiment, romanticism, and bombast, and of Bachman, the courteous gentleman naturalist, scientific detective, moralist, sometimes cruel experimenter, and humorist. Drawing on all the primary and secondary evidence, Patterson and Russell tell the story of the coauthors’ fascinating, conflicted relationship. This collection offers windows onto the early United States and much forgotten lore, often in the form of travel writing, natural history, and unique anecdotes, all told in the compelling voices of Antebellum America’s two leading naturalists.   Cover Title Page Copyright Page Contents List of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments Introduction Editorial Principles The Quadruped Essays Common American Wild Cat American Cross Fox Carolina Gray Squirrel Chipping Squirrel Common American Shrew Mole Gray Rabbit Leopard Spermophile Pennant’s Marten or Fisher Canada Otter Brown or Norway Rat American Bison White Weasel Raccoon Virginian Opossum White American Wolf Rocky Mountain Sheep Prong-horned Antelope Mule Deer Annulated Marmot Squirrel LeConte’s Pine Mouse Common American Deer Red Texan Wolf American Red Fox Common Mouse Cougar Ring-tailed Bassaris Missouri Mouse Columbian Black-tailed Deer American Black or Silver Fox Dusky Squirrel Cinnamon Bear Rocky Mountain Goat Grizzly Bear Richardson’s Meadow-Mouse Pine Marten American Black Bear Textual Notes Works of Natural History Cited in the Essays Index