Members-Only Book Club

Join fellow Alliance members in the virtual sphere to explore literature – both fiction and non-fiction – revolving around art, artists, art history, and art appreciation. Participate in thoughtful group discussions and expand your appreciation and knowledge of the world of art!

The Members-Only Book Club meets from 6:30-8:30 p.m. on the third Tuesday of every month. Club members must purchase their own copy of each book, but an active Alliance membership is all that’s required. To become a member, click here.

THIS MONTH’S BOOK

Under a Wild Sky: John James Audubon and the Making of Birds of America by William Souder

In the century and a half since Audubon’s death, his name has become synonymous with wildlife conservation and natural history. But few people know what a complicated figure he was–or the dramatic story behind The Birds of America.

Before Audubon, ornithological illustrations depicted scaled-down birds perched in static poses. Wheeling beneath storm-racked skies or ripping flesh from freshly killed prey, Audubon’s life-size birds looked as if they might fly screeching off the page. The wildness in the images matched the untamed spirit in Audubon-a self-taught painter and self-anointed aristocrat who, with his buckskins and long hair, wanted to be seen as both a hardened frontiersman and a cultured man of science.

In truth, neither his friends nor his detractors ever knew exactly who Audubon was or where he came from. Tormented by a fog of ambiguities surrounding his birth, he reinvented himself ceaselessly, creating a life as dramatic as his fictionalizations of it. But when he came east at thirty-eight-broke and desperate to find a publisher for his Birds-he ran squarely into a scientific establishment still wedded to convention and suspicious of the brash newcomer and his grandiose claims. It took Audubon fifteen years to prevail in both his project and his vision. How he triumphed and what drove him is the subject of this gripping narrative.

Please note: This event will take place in the Alliance for the Arts Gallery. Face coverings are required when indoors at the Alliance for the Arts until further notice. 

Upcoming Books: The Architect’s Apprentice by Elif Sharfak (February 15), Bohemians, Bootleggers, Flappers and Swells by Grayson Carter (March 15).