Spare the Birds!
George Bird Grinnell and the First Audubon Society
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- $36.99
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- $36.99
Publisher Description
In 1887, a year after founding the Audubon Society, explorer and conservationist George Bird Grinnell launched Audubon Magazine. The magazine constituted one of the first efforts to preserve bird species decimated by the women’s hat trade, hunting, and loss of habitat. Within two years, however, for practical reasons, Grinnell dissolved both the magazine and the society. Remarkably, Grinnell’s mission was soon revived by women and men who believed in it, and the work continues today. In this, the only comprehensive history of the first Audubon Society (1886–1889), Carolyn Merchant presents the exceptional story of George Bird Grinnell and his writings and legacy. The book features Grinnell’s biographies of ornithologists John James Audubon and Alexander Wilson and his editorials and descriptions of Audubon’s bird paintings. This primary documentation combined with Carolyn Merchant’s insightful analysis casts new light on Grinnell, the origins of the first Audubon Society, and the conservation of avifauna.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this eclectic and uneven work, Merchant (Autonomous Nature), professor of environmental history, philosophy, and ethics at UC Berkeley, examines the writings of George Bird Grinnell (1849 1938) and the "gendered issues underlying his role in saving avifauna." Grinnell grew up on the Audubon estate in New York City, where he was taught and deeply influenced by Lucy Audubon, the widow of famed naturalist and masterful painter John James Audubon. Merchant's scholarly prose depicts Grinnell's gradual awakening to a wildlife crisis: the decimation of birds brought on by society's obsession with adorning women's hats with feathers and dead birds. His moderate success in convincing men to stop the pointless killing and women to repudiate the frivolous fad led to his founding of the first Audubon Society in 1886 and Audubon Magazine a year later. But by 1889 he was forced to dissolve both. After a brief profile of Grinnell, Merchant largely reprints Grinnell's Audubon Magazine writings, adding necessary commentary. The most enjoyable passages are the (too few) excerpts from John Audubon's own journals. Merchant's work fills a narrow niche, but interested parties will appreciate Grinnell's lively portrayals of several common bird species accompanied by Audubon color plates. Illus.
