Alexander Wilson
Subtitle: the Scot who founded American ornithology
By: Edward H. Burtt, Jr., William E. Davis, Jr
Contributors: Davis, William E., Jr., 1936-
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2013
Language: eng
Number of pages: 444
ISBN-13: 9780674072558
Subjects: Pictorial works; Ornithology; Illustrations; Biography; Birds; Ornithologists; History
Description: Audubon was not the father of American ornithology. That honorific belongs to Alexander Wilson, whose encyclopedic American Ornithology established a distinctive approach that emphasized the observation of live birds. In the first full-length study to reproduce all of Wilson's unpublished drawings for the nine-volume Ornithology, Edward Burtt and William Davis illustrate Wilson's pioneering and, today, underappreciated achievement as the first ornithologist to describe the birds of the North American wilderness.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 429-432) and index.
Table of contents: title: Themes in Wilson's life and writings; title: A varied life; title: Illustrating American ornithology; title: Pioneer ornithologist; title: Wilson's legacy; title: Appendix A. On the shoulders of giants : Wilson's predecessors; title: Appendix B. Wilson's contemporaries and correspondents.