Items related to Creation (Thorndike Press Large Print Core Series)
Synopsis
“In a life so well-documented, these next few months form a rare gap. It is as if the dark cloud and fog Audubon sails into transcends mere weather, and becomes a state of mind. As if Labrador itself (or its weather) swallows the story.”
His need to capture the fugitive colours of birds pushed John James Audubon into impossible places, none more dangerous than the fog-ridden coast of Labrador in the summer of 1833. In mesmerizing prose, novelist Katherine Govier explores this fateful summer in the life of a man as untamed as his subjects.
Running two steps ahead of the bailiff, alternately praised and reviled by critics, John James Audubon set himself the audacious task of drawing, from nature, every bird in North America. The result was his masterpiece, The Birds of America, which he and his family published and sold to subscribers on both sides of the Atlantic. In June 1833, he enlisted his son and a party of young gentlemen to set sail for nesting grounds no ornithologist had ever seen, in the treacherous passage between Newfoundland and Labrador.
Fogbound at Little Natashquan, he encounters Captain Henry Wolsey Bayfield of the Royal Navy, whose mission is to chart the labyrinthine coast to make it safe for sea traffic. Bayfield is an exacting and duty-bound aristocrat; the charismatic Audubon spins tales to disguise his dubious parentage and lack of training. Bayfield is a confirmed bachelor; Audubon is a married man in love with his young assistant. But the captain becomes the artist’s foil and his measuring stick, his judge and, oddly, the recipient of his long-held secrets.
In this atmospheric and enthralling novel, Katherine Govier recreates the summer in which “the world’s greatest living bird artist” finally understood the paradox embedded in his art: that the act of creation was also an act of destruction.
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Review
""Creation is a lour de force, a finely written historical account that plays, for a serious purpose, with the very nature of historical inquiry and humanity's place in the natural order."
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- PublisherThorndike Pr
- Publication date2003
- ISBN 10 0786259264
- ISBN 13 9780786259267
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages553
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Creation [ Large Print]
Published by
Thorndike Press, Waterville, ME, 2003
ISBN 10: 0786259264
ISBN 13: 9780786259267
Used
Hardcover
Seller: Willis Monie-Books, ABAA, Cooperstown, NY, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: No Dust Jacket. Large Print Edition. Large print edition. ; 9.02 X 5.46 X 1.12 inches. Seller Inventory # 281534
Quantity: 1 available