Mr Audubon's Lucy Author:Lucy Kennedy When Lucy Bakewell agreed to marry the attractive, intense Frenchman who lived next door to the Bakewell's Pennsylvania estate, Fatland, she did so knowing full well life with John James Audubon would not be easy. Much as he loved her, he loved also painting his birds; his resolve to earn a living, she realized, might be little more than a good ... more »intention -- he was an artist and probably unsuited to the rigors of trade. Yet Lucy was happy to dedicate her life to help him achieve success.
She prepared herself for -- and endured from the first -- incredible hardships: a gruelling ride by stage over the mountains to Pittsburg, a journey by flatboat into what was then Western wilderness, Louisville, a succession of uprootings from Louisville to the backwater town of Henderson to New Orleans, realizing all the time that the responsibility of holding the family together would devolve on her until their impossible dream could come true.
But, like today's women, Lucy Audubon found responsibility a two-edged sword; for the dream she saw come to fruition, the dream that gave America one of its most priceless cultural possessions, almost cost her the man she loved.
To tell Lucy Audubon's story Miss Kennedy searched through all the journals, letters, records and other writings of the Audubon family, and in this outstanding novel she presents a remarkable portrait of a valiant woman.« less