European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 12, 1968, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sketch of ground hog made in 1805 is believed to be Audubon s first mammal study. Self portrait of Audubon. Bird prints this is trumpeter Swan made Audubon s name famous. By Sid Whipple staff writer to the conservative Gentry of early19th Century London american naturalist John j. Audubon must have presented an outlandish picture As he trudged from door to door trying to Fin buyers for Bird engravings. In the first place he was dressed like woodsman who had just emerged from some Forest without time to visit a bar Ber. His hair curled like an unkempt wig beneath a fur hat. He wore a Wolf ski coat arid a pair of nondescript pants. Furthermore he carried his Hundred Pound Burden of paintings on his Shoul Ders instead of entrusting them to Porter. The a m e r i can ornithologist was plagued with harassment setbacks and disappointments As he tried to peddle his collection to appreciative but stingily cautious patrons. No discouragement shattered Audubon s driving Force. He was already sure during this tour of England in 1826 that in 50 years his Folio of the Birds of America would command  when the first subscription to the work came from an american heiress and social Leader then in Edinburgh a miss Harriet Douglas he responded some what grudgingly to the suggestions that he get a  he not Only let his Chev lures be guillotined which was contrary to the will of god he said but went so far As to discard the Wolf Kinin favor of a Bright new English great coat. Life showed a certain Talent even in those Early  later years John James developed a strange almost psychopathic attitude towards his parentage. Although he was always artistically truthful and Metic Ulous in every statement about the wild life he studied his references to his birth were to put it mildly romantic in the extreme. He claimed Noble de scent. His father was a French Admiral and so Forth and so by vhf eve claimed at one time to have been born in Louisiana. And for most of his life he w a s successful in concealing the  he feared that a revelation of the facts about his birth would injure illegitimate son of capt. Jean Audubon a French sea Captain and a very Beautiful chambermaid named Jeanne Rabine or Rabin was born Atles Cayes Haiti on april 26, 1785. His Mother died later in the year and to escape the dangers of the haitian revolution the boy was taken Back to France where be was adopted by Audubon and his wife Anne Moynet Audubon. He was then 9. Young Audubon s interest in Birdland animals began during adolescence in the Region around Coteron France and his colourful Crayon drawings of wild Page 12 John j. Audubon \ must have presented an outlandish picture As he trudged from door to door trying to find buyers for Bird engravings. 99 his standing with Charles Lucien Bona Parte Nephew of the emperor whom he was seeking to enlist As a  is also possible that he believed the invention of an aristocratic Back ground would elicit the favourable at Tention of the More snobbish elements of european society the people with Money enough to subscribe to his expensive Folio. From his arrival in Mill Grove pa.,when he was 18 years old until his departure from new Orleans in 182tt for England when he was 41, his life had been a succession of failures. He had re to keep the allegorical Wolf family Hearth even while he Png the actual beast to its taught fencing dancing arid been a trader operating a Enderson ky., and gone Bank process. He had been in jail be had played the fiddle Andi Tebor meals in Blackwood taverns. Bought the wilds with gun an slept alongside streams on savings. Ily tangible result o is year Fork remained in his portfolio i wings and paintings of Amer the foundation of a collection tally was to include 4351 plates containing 1,065 life of More than 400 species masterpiece. Was beset by rivalries in thecial Field. His most Anta pet Tor was George Ord who King to Complete an Octavo of Alexander Wilson s Post published work on Bird life. Ing Audubon s paintings or Pausly called them absurd attitude sizing of Birds in Habi fancy and  his c diatribe failed to squelch sible John James. The first engravers Alexande to whom Audubon s pictures Sii own was equally scathing. Too soft too much like Oil engraving he said. And to Lucien Bonaparte who had e portfolio to his attention Foj you May buy them but engrave them. Ornithology re a and Correct lines Here Are White Pelican is part of Audubon i legacy of 1,035 life size pictures. The stars and stripes merely a ened Audi insistence that some daybed rec size his work not  he told pros s frankly that thebe completed for 16 l0parosl act which certainly w Oto to potential investors. Andin a � ? correspondent a him the u i offer to Fau Tufui Monument to the Ndour of american nature Devotion to american Orni i 1968 then suddenly the tide of Fortun began turning. He met the Rathbone family Clever intellectual patrons of hearts headed by the kindly gracious 65 year old mrs. William  s Circle of influential friends soon included not Only the rat Bones but also William Roscoe head of the athenaeum and a distinguished historian the London banker Barclay prof. Thomas s. Traill a zoologist of note the Earl of Derby and Jean Sismondi an eminent Swiss historian. It first Public exhibition of 250 selections from his Folio was at the Edinburgh Royal institution. After the first show ing which was free to certain of the elite a charge of one shilling was made to the general Public. And Money began rolling in to bolster Audubon s depleted finances. Exhibitions followed in Man Chester and Liverpool. Audubon had been cautious in his estimate of How Many years he would need to Complete the master volume. In12 years the Job was done and the ornithologist s Genius had been recognized by the entire world. Four years before his death in 1851,his Active mind gave Way but others remained to Complete the priceless work he had so ably begun his wife Lucy Bakewell Audubon his two sons Victor and John and his brother in Law the Rev. John Bachman of  living Monument to his faithful de Votion to an Ideal remains in the National Audubon society an association of More than 40,000 Bird lovers which was founded in 1905. Will offer to any country a. � Monument to of a varied splendor of american nature. Audubon s contemporaries attacked prints such As this Osprey As  sketch of whippoorwill dated 1806 is one of Audubon s first american Bird drawings. The stars and stripes Page 13