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 1898, 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 
