Audubon’s Elephant by Duff Hart-Davis, Henry Holt, $27.50, ISBN 0805075682 Reviewed by Roy Herbert
A STRANGE and striking figure arrived in Liverpool in 1826. Tall backwoodsman John James Audubon was reversing the usual traffic in search of a transatlantic fortune. A self-taught artist, he had a majestic ambition: to complete his paintings, life-size, of American birds – and to make some money.
Born in Haiti, Audubon had been brought up in the American West, wandering through the wilderness and observing its wildlife. In the UK he hoped to find skilled engravers and colourists to reproduce his paintings and to sell them…
