Birds were "the objects of my greatest delight," wrote John James Audubon (1785–1851), founder of modern ornithology and one of the world's greatest bird painters. His masterpiece, The Birds of America depicts almost five hundred North American bird species, each image—lifelike and life size—rendered in vibrant color. Audubon was also an explorer, a woodsman, a hunter, an entertaining and prolific writer, and an energetic self-promoter.

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A biography of artist John James Audubon offers a study of his private life, detailing his arrival in America from France in 1803, his life in frontier Kentucky, and his extraordinary images of native American wildlife.

"To some, he was "Professor Nuts Peterson, " but to the world he was Roger Tory Peterson. For the birds: the life of Roger Tory Peterson tracks this American artist, activist, and passionate bird lover from his days as a child, to art student, to creator of the Peterson Field Guides, to global environmentalist. Peterson's guides were revolutionary--simply written and drawn for everyone to enjoy the birds, animals, and plants of the outdoors. Millions...