A Summer of Birds: John James Audubon at Oakley House - Paperback

by Danny Heitman (Author)

Over the summer of 1821, a cash-strapped John James Audubon worked as a tutor at Oakley Plantation in Louisiana's rural West Feliciana Parish. This move initiated a profound change in direction for the struggling artist. Oakley's woods teemed with life, galvanizing Audubon to undertake one of the most extraordinary endeavors in the annals of art: a comprehensive pictorial record of America's birds. That summer, Audubon began what would eventually become his four-volume opus, Birds of America.

In A Summer of Birds, Danny Heitman recounts the season that shaped Audubon's destiny, sorting facts from romance to give an intimate view of the world's most famous bird artist. A new preface marks the two--hundredth anniversary of that eventful interlude, reflecting on Audubon's enduring legacy among artists, aesthetes, and nature lovers in Louisiana and around the world.

Author Biography

Danny Heitman is an award-winning columnist for The Advocate newspaper in Louisiana and editor of Phi Kappa Phi's Forum magazine. His essays and book reviews have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Smithsonian, and elsewhere