CHAPTER XXXII 



AUDUBON'S GREATEST TRIUMPH 



Extension of his work — Financial panic and revolt of patrons — New western 

 collections — His "Book of Nature" completed — Work on the letter- 

 press in Edinburgh — Vacation in the Highlands — Commissions to 

 Harris — Parting address to the reader — Dissolution of the Havell en- 

 graving establishment — The residuum of The Birds of America — • 

 Robert Havell, engraver, and his family — Lizars' first edition and the 

 Havell reissues of plates — Brief manual for collectors — Appreciations — 

 Total edition of The Birds of America — Past and present prices — The 

 Rothschild incident. 



After Audubon's return to England in the sum- 

 mer of 1837, the completion of his magnum opus occu- 

 pied but two years. Certain now of the ultimate success 

 which would crown his efforts, he worked with a furious 

 ardor, determined not only to execute his original plans, 

 but to extend them, if necessary, to include every bird 

 which had been discovered in America, or, at least, in 

 the United States. 



Audubon wrote Thomas Brewer in September that, 

 for some unexplained cause, a large part of his collec- 

 tions made in Texas had probably been lost; when writ- 

 ing on October 29, the box containing all the eggs col- 

 lected on the Gulf of Mexico had not come to hand. 

 He continued:^ 



I authorize you to offer and to pay as much as ^ve dollars 

 for an old raven, in the flesh, and perfect as far as mternals 



' For this and the quotations in the foUovnng paragraph, see Thomas 

 M. Brewer (Bibl. No. 79), Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol. Ixi, 

 p. 666 (1880). 



168 



