16 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



In May, 1834, William MacGillivray, who was as- 

 sisting him in the technical parts of the Ornithological 

 Biography, suggested that Audubon write a biography 

 of himself, and predicted a wide popularity for such a 

 work. Audubon entertained the idea but was then too 

 deeply immersed in The Birds of America to give it 

 much attention; yet in 1835 he wrote out a short sketch, 

 entitled Myself, addressing it in the fashion of that day 

 to his two sons, and then laid it aside. Mrs. Audubon 

 evidently had access to this manuscript when the life of 

 her husband, to be referred to later, was in course of 

 preparation, and thus it has furnished, directly or indi- 

 rectly, nearly all that has been published concerning the 

 naturalist's early life. This fragment, which extends 

 to about thirty printed pages, was characterized by 

 Audubon as a "very imperfect (but perfectly correct) 

 account of my early life," and though written with an 

 eye to its possible publication, which was clearly sanc- 

 tioned, it was evidently never revised. The manuscript 

 was long lost but eventually was "found in an old book 

 which had been in a barn on Staten Island for years"; 

 it was first published by the naturalist's granddaughter, 

 Miss Maria R. Audubon, in 1893, and again in 1898. 

 As will later appear, this account is inaccurate in many 

 important particulars. 



Audubon expressed the intention of extending his 

 personal history, which he promised to delineate with a 

 faithfulness equal to that bestowed on the birds, but 

 the task was never resumed. Yet more than most 

 writers have done, he wove the incidents of his own 

 career into the pages of his principal works, and this 

 strong personal flavor added much to their charm. Un- 

 fortunately, in giving such personal or historical details 

 he is most vulnerable to a critic, who insists first upon 



