PREFACE 



The origin of the gifted ornithologist, animal painter, and 

 writer, known to the world as John James Audubon, has re- 

 mained a mystery up to the present time. In now lifting the 

 veil which was cast over his early existence, I feel that I serve 

 the cause of historical truth ; at the same time it is possible 

 to do fuller justice to all most intimately concerned with the 

 story of his life and accomplishments. 



The present work is in reality the outcome of what was first 

 undertaken as a holiday recreation in the summer of 1903. 

 While engaged upon a research of quite a different character, 

 I reread, with greater care, Audubon's Ornithological Biog- 

 raphy, and after turning the leaves of his extraordinary illus- 

 trations, it seemed to me most strange that but little should be 

 known of the making of so original and masterful a character. 

 As I was in England at the time some investigations were 

 undertaken in London, but, as might have been expected, with 

 rather barren results. After my return to America in the 

 following year the search was continued, but as it proved 

 equally fruitless here, the subject was set aside. Not until 

 1913, when this investigation was resumed in France, did I 

 meet with success. 



Every man, however poor or inconsequential he may ap- 

 pear or be, is supposed to possess an estate, and every man 

 of affairs is almost certain to leave behind him domestic, pro- 

 fessional, or commercial papers, which are, in some degree, a 

 mark of his attainments and an indication of his character 

 and tastes. In the summer of 1913 I went to France in 

 search of the personal records of the naturalist's father, Lieu- 

 tenant Jean Audubon, whose home had been at Nantes and in 

 the little commune of Coueron, nine miles below that city, on 



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