AUDUBON’S LETTERPRESS 439 
No sooner had Audubon begun to write than it was 
learned that “no less than three editions of ‘Wilson’s 
Ornithology’ were about to be published, one by 
Jameson, one by Sir W. Jardine, and another by a Mr. 
Brown.” The outlook could not be considered encour- 
aging, but this intelligence only nerved him to greater 
effort, and he was determined to push his own publica- 
tion with such unremitting vigor as to anticipate them 
all. “Since I have been in England,” he wrote in his 
journal, “I have studied the character of Englishmen 
as carefully as I have studied the birds in America, 
and I know full well that in England novelty is always 
in demand, and that if a thing is well known it will not 
receive much support.” Audubon worked continuously 
at his Biography, rising before the dawn and writing all 
day, while the able worker at his side carried his efforts 
far into the night, and in three months the first volume 
was ready for the printer; Mrs. Audubon meanwhile 
copied their entire manuscript to be sent to the United 
States in order to secure the American copyright. 
When this work was offered to the publishers at Edin- 
burgh, however, not one of them, said the naturalist, 
would offer a shilling for it, but this did not deter him 
from publishing it at once and at his own expense.* On 
March 13, 1831, he wrote: “The printing will be com- 
pleted in a few days, and I have sent copies of the sheets 
to Dr. Harlan, and Mr. McMurtie, at Philadelphia, and 
also one hundred pounds sterling to Messrs. 'T. Walker 
& Sons, to be paid to Dr. Harlan to secure the copy- 
right, and have the book published there.” 
*The first volume of the Ornithological Biography in the European 
edition bears the imprint of “Adam Black, 55 North Bridge, Edinburgh;” 
in the four subsequent volumes this was changed to “Adam and Charles 
Black,” while the entire work was printed by “Neill & Co., Printers, Old 
Fish Market, Edinburgh.” See Bibliography, No, 2. 
