American Birds: A Literary Companion

by Andrew Rubenfeld (Editor), Terry Tempest Williams (Editor)

Overview

Featuring some of America's greatest writers and poets, this landmark anthology is a one-of-a-kind field guide to the American literary imagination.

Americans have always been fascinated by birds and from the beginning American writers have captured this keen interest in a variety of genres: poems, journals, memoirs, short stories, essays, and travel accounts. Here literature professor and avid birder Andrew Rubenfeld, in collaboration with acclaimed writer Terry Tempest Williams, who provides a foreword, gathers evocative and surprising writings on birds and our fascination with them from an astonishing array of American poets and writers. The result is a literature of singular depth and beauty, with occasional flights of fancy in the mix. 

Experience the exquisite beauty of Native American songs about birds. Accompany Lewis and Clark as they encounter new species, Audubon as he sketches near New Orleans, and Emerson and Thoreau birding together around Walden Pond. Delight in Sarah Orne Jewett’s poignant tale of a snowy egret in the Maine woods and Florence Merriam’s portrait of a winter wren in Central Park. Join Rachel Carson as she watches skimmers along the Atlantic coast and Roger Tory Peterson observing snail kites in the Everglades. And thrill to an impressive roster of modern and contemporary poets, including Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, Sterling A. Brown, Cornelius Eady, Mary Oliver, Linda Hogan, Louise Erdrich, and David Tomas Martinez, as they evoke the magic and haunting beauty of America’s birds.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781598536553
Publisher:	Library of America
Publication date:	03/10/2020
Pages:	270
Sales rank:	482,705
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

ANDREW RUBENFELD is professor of literature at Stevens Institute of Technology where he teaches courses on American nature and environmental writing. He has served as president of the Linnaean Society of New York, the nation’s second oldest ornithological and conservation organization, and is a founding member of the Birders’ Coalition for Gateway, to restore the Jamaica Wildlife Refuge following Hurricane Sandy. 

TERRY TEMPEST WILLIAMS is the award-winning author of numerous books, including Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, When Women Were Birds, and Erosion: Essays of Undoing. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she is currently the Writer-in-Residence at the Harvard Divinity School, dividing her time between Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Castle Valley, Utah.

Table of Contents

Foreword Terry Tempest Williams xv

Introduction Andrew Rubenfeld 1

Three American Indian Songs about Birds

Hawk Chant of the Saginaws (Ojibwa) 13

The Mocking-Bird's Song (Tigua) 14

The Road-Runner (Pima) 15

J. Hector St. John De Crèvecoeur

On the Humming Bird (1782) 16

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark

From Journals, 1805-1806 18

John James Audubon

From Mississippi RiverJournal, 1820-1821 24

Ivory-billed Woodpecker (1838) 34

William Cullen Bryant

To a Waterfowl (1821) 41

Ralph Waldo Emerson

From Journals, 1838-1862 43

Henry David Thoreau

From Journals, 1852-1858 46

Emily Dickinson

A Bird came down the Walk-(c. 1862) 63

The Way to know the Bobolink (c. 1873) 64

Walt Whitman

Birds Migrating at Midnight (1882) 65

Bird-Whistling (1882) 66

Birds-and a Caution (1882) 67

Sarah Orne Jewett

A White Heron (1886) 68

Herman Melville

The Man-of-War Hawk (1888) 81

The Blue-Bird (late 1880s) 82

Florence A. Merriam

Winter Wren (1889) 83

Sidney Lanier

The Mocking Bird (1891) 86

Frank M. Chapman

A Word to the Beginner (1895) 87

Goldfinch (1895) 91

John Burroughs

Wild Life about My Cabin (1904) 92

Theodore Roosevelt

From An Autobiography (1913) 110

John Muir

A New World (1913) 112

North Fork of the Merced (1911) 114

Robert Frost

The Oven Bird (1916) 116

Carl Sandburg

Purple Martins (1920) 117

John Hall Wheelock

The Fish-Hawk (1922) 119

Marianne Moore

The Frigate Pelican (1935) 121

Rachel Carson

Flood Tide (1941) 123

Theodore Roethke

The Heron (1941) 127

Aldo Leopold

April: Sky Dance (1949) 128

Roger Tory Peterson and James Fisher

Kites over the Sawgrass (1956) 132

Edwin Way Teale

Swallow Clouds (1956) 138

Ogden Nash

Up from the Egg: The Confessions of a Nuthatch Avoider (1957) 147

Robinson Jeffers

Vulture (1963) 148

William Carlos Williams

Bird Song (1963) 149

Elizabeth Bishop

Sandpiper (1965) 150

Randall Jarrell

The Mockingbird (1965) 151

John Haines

If the Owl Calls Again (1966) 152

John Hollander

Swan and Shadow (1968) 154

William Stafford

Juncos (1973) 155

Gary Snyder

Magpie's Song (1974) 156

Barry Lopez

The Raven (1976) 157

Anthony Hecht

House Sparrows (1979) 161

Sterling A. Brown

Idyll (1980) 163

Faith McNulty

The Ever Hungry Jay (1980) 165

Lorna Dee Cervantes

Emplumada (1981) 170

Robert Penn Warren

Redwing Blackbirds (1981) 171

E. B. White

A Listener's Guide to the Birds (1981) 173

Robert Creeley

The Birds (1982) 176

Charles Simic

The Great Horned Owl (1982) 178

Cornelius Eady

Crows in a Strong Wind (1986) 179

David Wagoner

Kingfisher (1987) 180

May Swenson

Waterbird (1987) 181

Duane Niatum

Snowy Owl near Ocean Shores (1991) 182

Terry Tempest Williams

Peregrine Falcon (1991) 183

Mary Oliver

Gannets (1992) 187

Linda Hogan

Crow Law (1993) 189

Amy Clampitt

Shorebird-Watching (1994) 190

Robert Wrigley

Ravens at Deer Creek (1998) 192

Marie Winn

From Red-Tails in Love (1998) 194

Richard Wilbur

A Barred Owl (2000) 202

Louise Erdrich

I Was Sleeping Where the Black Oaks Move (2003) 203

Debra Nystrom

Cliff Swallows (2003) 205

Mark Jarman

A Pair of Tanagers (2004) 206

Ted Kooser

Screech Owl (2004) 208

Pamela Uschuk

Snow Goose Migration at Tule Lake (2005) 209

Robert Cording

Peregrine Falcon, New York City (2006) 211

Ursula K. Le Guin

The Cactus Wren (2006) 213

Timothy Steele

Black Phoebe (2006) 214

Richard Powers

From The Echo Maker (2006) 216

Jonathan Rosen

From The Life of the Skies (2008) 221

Emily Wilson

Red-Legged Kittiwake (2009) 229

C. K. Williams

Blackbird (2010) 232

Jack Collom

Ruddy Duck (2012) 234

Rick Bass

Answering the Call (2013) 235

Wendell Berry

The Acadian flycatcher, not (2013) 239

David Tomas Martinez

Of Mockingbirds (2014) 240

Sidney Wade

Indigo Bunting (2017) 242

Noah Strycker

From Birding Without Borders (2017)

W. S. Merwin

Unknown Bird (2001) 248

Sources and Acknowledgments 251

Index 263

Editorial Reviews

10/21/2019

Naturalist and activist Williams (When Women Were Birds) and Rubenfeld, a former Linnaean Society of New York president, present a rich literary aviary. After three undated Ojibwa, Tigua, and Pima songs about, respectively, hawks, mockingbirds, and road runners, the editors proceed chronologically, from J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur’s 1782 essay “On Snakes, and on the Humming Bird,” to W.S. Merwin’s 2001 poem, “Unknown Bird,” which ends the collection on a timely note of ecological concern. Between these two entries, the anthology samples precisely detailed 19th-century ornithological descriptions from Audubon, Lewis and Clark, and Thoreau’s journals, and represents 19th-century bird-themed poetry with works from both Emily Dickinson and the now less-read William Cullen Bryant. Twentieth-century prose selections include familiar names like John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt, who laments that “the cheery quail, alas! are rarely found near us now” at his Sagamore Hill summer house on Long Island. Among the 20th-century poets, Robert Frost writes about the oven bird; Marianne Moore, about the frigate pelican; and Elizabeth Bishop, the sandpiper. Birders will be relieved to find favorite Roger Tory Peterson here, and general readers may especially enjoy Ogden Nash’s punny confession of birder inadequacy: “I sometimes visualize in my gin/ The Audubon that I audubin.” Williams and Rubenfeld’s assemblage will satisfy anyone helplessly twitterpated by birds. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"Beyond singsong delight, the pieces provide a fascinating index of the development of American literature through the centuries: why, one might ask, might authors now find birds a subject more fit for poetry than prose, where two centuries ago the opposite was true? In any case, the volume demonstrates that delight can come in small packages." —The New Criterion

“Evocative and absorbing. . . . All who read it will find their own favorites among the 74 appealing selections and will marvel at the many different ways to see, think about, describe, and cherish birds and their place in our lives.” —The Urban Audubon

“An exquisite compendium celebrating America’s ornithological obsession.” —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

12/01/2019

In this wide-ranging anthology, Williams (The Hour of Land) and Rubenfeld (former president, Linnaean Society of New York) draw on natural history and literature to explore how writers have been informed and influenced by birds from the early 19th century to modern times. To achieve this goal, the editors have selected the writings of 75 authors, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, John James Audubon, Emily Dickinson, Rachel Carson, and John Muir. Earlier selections favor prose excerpts while later ones feature poetry. Selections were made in part to represent a wide variety of bird species, though ravens are significantly featured throughout. VERDICT An enjoyable anthology for naturalists, especially birders, and those who enjoy literature.—Henry T. Armistead, formerly with Free Lib. of Philadelphia

Library Journal

2019-12-09
A new anthology collects 235 years of American bird writing.

Can one diagnose the state of a nation through its attitude toward its aviary? This new volume from the Library of America makes such a project seem possible, assembling a centurieslong archive of U.S. bird writing that claims to act as nothing less than a "field guide to the American soul." Indeed, a well-worn literary history can be wrought from these pages: From Lewis and Clark's meticulous taxonomizing, through Thoreau's starry-eyed transcendentalism, to Bishop's magisterial modernism and the elegiac atmospherics of latter-day Erdrich. But lesser-known texts shine amid their star-studded company, such as Sarah Orne Jewett's early (1886!) environmentalist short fiction and John Hollander's 1968 calligram in the shape of a swan and its reflection on a pond. The entries are unified by a sense of heightened attention induced by the writer's encounter with a wild, flying thing; beyond this, however, the genres, moods, and styles are as diverse as the birds they catalog. (That said, 20th-century poetry gets more than its fair share of pages, and there is a disappointing but predictable preponderance of men to women writers.) On the whole, one gets the sense that birds hold a special symbolic place in the American experiment: a fantasy of freedom as manifest in flight, alluring yet unattainable, a perpetual promise remaining elusive even after the airplane. Robert Creeley writes the paradox beautifully: "The birds, / no matter they're not of our kind, / seem most like us here. I want // to go where they go, in a way, if / a small and common one."

An exquisite compendium celebrating America's ornithological obsession from its Colonial origins to its fractious present.

Kirkus Reviews