Joan Howard

About the birth of few men of modern times has there been so much mystery as has shrouded that of John James Audubon. There have been all sorts of stories about it, including the well-known one that he was the lost Dauphin of France.

Whatever it may have been, he spent his boyhood in France as the adopted son of a Captain Audubon whose name he was given. Young Audubon hated school and spent all his time studying and drawing birds. Finally the Captain realized that the boy was never going to get anywhere going to school and he sent him to Paris to take lessons in drawing. Even there Audubon learned nothing and finally when he was eighteen he came to America to try to make a living. For more than twenty years he worked at all sorts of odd projects, all the while learning about and making drawings of the birds of America. When he went to London in 1826 to find the best engravers for his drawings, his years of work were finally vindicated for people everywhere recognized his genius.

Joan Howard has written a vivid biography of this fascinating artist that will keep its young readers enthralled from beginning to end.

From the dust jacket… (more)

A much-desired book from my youth: The 13th is Magic! (Their exclamation point, not mine.) I borrowed this book from the mini-public library on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn about a thousand times back in the early 70s. I was too honorable to make believe I lost it and keep it. Now I can't find it anywhere. Seriously, would somebody who owns it please just scan this book into a pdf and all our lives? Why is this book out of print? Why hasn't someone made a movie of it? And did you know there was a follow-up called "The Summer is Magic"?… (more)