Audubon's Birds Of America: The Audubon Society Baby Elephant Folio

Audubon's Birds of America: The Audubon Society Baby Elephant Folio

This marvelous edition of Audubon's Birds of America displays all 435 of Audubon's brilliant handcolored engravings in exquisite reproductions taken from the original plates of the Audubon Society's archival copy of the rare Double Elephant Folio. Although many attempts have been made to re-create the magnificent illustrations in Audubon's masterpiece, nothing equals the level of fidelity or scale achieved in this high-quality edition.Organized and annotated by Roger Tory Peterson, AmericaG??s best-known ornithologist, and issued with the full endorsement and cooperation of the Audubon Society, this magnificent volume is as thorough in scientific classification as it is beautiful. Peterson's fascinating introduction places Audubon in the context of the history of American ornithological art and also reproduces a wide sampling of the work of Audubon's notable predecessors and disciples, including Peterson's own justly famous paintings. This new systematic arrangement of the prints, complete with informative commentaries about each bird, made it possible to correct many of the problems or errors in Audubon's original edition revealed by later scholarship. The colorful captions in the back provide fascinating commentaries on each featured bird.From Library JournalIn the review of the original volume, LJ 's reviewer called this "the finest edition since the original double-elephant folio" and recommended its purchase by "all but the smallest libraries" ( LJ 1/1/82). Since then, no other edition has appeared to alter those judgments. The revisions in this new version are minor: the text has been somewhat rewritten, mainly to reflect recent changes in bird names and classification, and some of the double-page plates of the original have been reduced to one page. At the price, libraries owning the original do not need to acquire this book, but libraries that missed the first edition will wish to consider this one--if budgets permit.- Paul B. Cors, Univ. of Wyoming Lib., LaramieCopyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.About the AuthorRoger Tory Peterson has been regarded as America's most notable ornithologist following the publication of A Field Guide to the Birds in 1934. Like Audubon, Peterson received many honorary degrees and awards, including the Presidential Medal of Honor. Virginia Marie Peterson is a scientist and an expert on the environmental effects of oil spills.