Pulitzer Prize winning author, Richard Rhodes, wrote the much acclaimed biography of John James Audubon published recently. The following article provides some details…

Audubon's biographer to share insight into famed naturalist
The Salt Lake Tribune
By Christy Karras

John James Audubon was born in Haiti in 1785, the son of a chambermaid. But he eventually rose to fame as one of the nation's best naturalists, traveling to Europe to publish a world-famous book of his paintings and even meeting the president of the United States.

"He was a very enthusiastic man. He typically used five exclamation points where the rest of us would use one," said Richard Rhodes, author of John James Audubon, last year's acclaimed biography. Rhodes will be in Utah on Saturday to speak at Sundance Resort.

You wouldn't necessarily expect such an upbeat story from an author whose books typically deal with, in his words, "human violence - how it comes about and how to survive it." Most of his 20 books cover sobering territory: The Making of the Atomic Bomb won a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award and a National Book Critics Circle Award. Dark Sun, about the development of the hydrogen bomb, was a Pulitzer finalist. He also wrote Masters of Death, about the Holocaust, and Hole in the World, recalling his childhood at the hands of an abusive stepmother. More...

See a few of Audubon’s bird paintings.