Sunday April 26th was National Audubon Day. On this day, we recognize the birth of John James Audubon. What makes him so important? John James Audubon's claim to fame was his extensive studies of birds in their natural habitat. Not only that, Audubon made painted illustrations of the birds as he observed them in their natural environment. Considered to be the apex of ornithological works was Audubon's The Birds of America.https://nationaldaycalendar.com/days-2/national-audubon-day-april-26/
Today, I'm going to honor his memory with this blog. There were not many fictional properties that use Audubon in their work. I found some works that were fictional while others were borderline fictional. Anyways without further ado...
6 Degrees Around Audubon
1. Alvin Heartfire
Summary: Orson Scott Card wrote this book while SFBC Publishing published Alvin Heartfire. It was about the seventh son of a seventh son named Alvin. He found that he had a special gift-- he was a maker. His goal was to make a shining city that could be a home for everyone. In this book, his path took him to the north where he confronted the witch laws.https://www.amazon.com/Alvin-Wandering-Tales-Journeyman-Heartfire/dp/1568659040
Commentary: Before Alvin left on his journey to the north, he went to find his ward Arthur Stuart. Arthur and Alvin ran into Audubon who was trying to shoot a goose so he could paint it's picture.
2. Mr Audubon Meets the Undead
Summary: Elvis Franco wrote this short story and published it through Storytown. It took place in Eastport, Maine when a ship carrying zombies arrived from the Caribbean.https://www.amazon.com/Audubon-Meets-Undead-Elvis-Franco-ebook/dp/B003F76WTI
Commentary: The reason that this story was of interest was because it took place when Audubon was in Maine. Mr. Audubon met the undead and became a hero.
3. Audubon On The Wings of the World
Summary: Fabien Grolleau wrote the graphic novel and Jeremie Royer drew the illustrations for the semi biographical story about Audubon as he traveled across the America to paint birds. He didn't bring much with him, apparently, just an assistant, a gun, and his painting supplies.https://www.amazon.com/Audubon-Meets-Undead-Elvis-Franco-ebook/dp/B003F76WTI
Commentary: Of course, the reason that I chose this story was because it was about Audubon. The interesting thing about this graphic novel was that the story use Audubon's writings describing his journey as the foundation.
4. John Audubon Young Naturalist
Summary: Miriam E. Mason wrote this book while Cathy Morrison provided illustrations. It was a biography/story about John Audubon. When he left Haiti and headed to France, Young Audubon worried that he wouldn't get to see his birds. But he was delighted in finding a lot of little birds near his new home.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1681040.John_Audubon
https://lookingglassreview.com/html/blank_review_for_copying51.html
Commentary: This book also talked about how he collected bird's eggs and corpses, creating his own little museum. He even brought animals that he found.
5. John James Audubon
Summary: This was a poem written by Stephen Vincent Benet with his wife Rosemary. The Book of Americans, a book of children's poetry, contained the poem. It had a rhyme scheme of ABCB BDED FGHG IJKJ LMCM NOCO PQCQ RSKS TUCU. It was a simple poem describing Audubon's quest.https://allpoetry.com/John-James-Audobon
https://www.amazon.com/Americans-Rosemary-Benet-Stephen-Vincent/dp/0030351200
Commentary: The poem also brought up Audubon's wife and demonstrated that she was his support on his quest.
6. Audubon
Summary: James Kallembach composed this choral oratorio. It opened at the Chorus Pro Musica on November 9, 2018. Accompanying the musical work, played a video presentation of Audobons' art and images of the natural world. An orchestra and a choir performed the music.https://choruspromusica.org/featured/chorus-pro-musica-announces-audubon-multimedia-oratorio-james-kallembach/
Commentary: What can I say about this? It portrayed Audubon's art while the musical composition evoked the frontier of America. Composer Kallembach and the videographer worked to sync the art and the music.
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