As I recall, it was at the Cape May Fall Birding Festival in 2022 that I was standing at the Princeton University Press display chatting with publisher Dr. Robert Kirk when a wildlife and landscape artist of particularly noteworthy talent and well-earned high reputation well known to us both casually approached, greeted us in the relaxed and friendly manner of one naturalist to others, and then upon seeing the recently published In the Footsteps of Audubon displayed on the nearby table suddenly burst into an excited glow and made a bee-line directly for it. I had not yet heard about the book but I knew from this brief interaction that it was a book that most certainly deserved further enquiry.
Combining the paintings and drawings created over the sixteen years renowned French watercolorist and avid ornithologist Denis Clavreul spent traveling through the same areas of North America traversed by John James Audubon in the nineteenth century with extracts from the journals and letters of the later, In the Footsteps of Audubon combines a celebration of the wildlife and landscapes depicted in Audubon’s works with a coming together of Audubon’s own time with the present day through these same creatures and places as they exist today.
This is a book that should most certainly be known to birdwatchers and naturalists, as well as to artists, historians, and anyone who simply enjoys the opportunity to undertake a remarkable journey across a large portion of North America without ever leaving the comforts of home.
