Tenacious of Life: The Quadruped Essays of John James Audubon and John Bachman by John James Audubon and John Bachman (review)

Reviewed by: Tenacious of Life: The Quadruped Essays of John James Audubon and John Bachman by John James Audubon and John Bachman Susan Wilds McArver Tenacious of Life: The Quadruped Essays of John James Audubon and John Bachman. By John James Audubon and John Bachman, edited with original commentary by Daniel Patterson and Eric Russell. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2021. 352 pp. John Bachman (1790–1874) stands as one of the most significant figures of southeastern Lutheran history for his important leadership throughout the nineteenth century, both regionally and nationally. In his own day, however, Bachman may have been better known for his considerable accomplishments as a scientific naturalist, primarily through his role as the indispensable collaborator of the far more famous John James Audubon. While Audubon served as the primary artist of both the highly successful Birds of North America and the Quadrupeds of North America, it was Bachman who largely wrote the scientific text for the latter work. The recovery of Bachman's important role is part of the aim of editors Patterson and Russell. Through their selection and abridgment of thirty-six essays from the original Quadruped volumes (published between 1845 and 1848), they have produced a "literary anthology" that provides less a history of science and more a "history of American nature writing" (xii–xiii). The editors' excellent and insightful commentary offers a larger context for the lives of both men, of nineteenth-century science, and of American society. Bachman and Audubon wrote in a single "voice" in these essays, which describe four-footed animals found on the North American continent: no signature identifies which of the two men wrote individual essays or parts of essays. The editors point out the differences, however, between the "impetuous, expressive, eager voice of Audubon and the more decorous, dignified, reserved voice of Bachman" End Page 114 (xxxv). Unfortunately, the authors make no mention of the role of Maria Martin Bachman, John Bachman's second wife, who contributed to the research and writing of the Quadrupeds text, as documented in Debra Lindsay's Maria Martin's World: Art & Science, Faith & Family in Audubon's America (2018). While the editors acknowledge Bachman's "day job," the focus here is clearly on Bachman the naturalist, whom they praise. Indeed, they even suggest that Bachman may have come close to making the mental and scientific leaps of Charles Darwin before Darwin did. Ultimately, however, they suggest that Bachman's religious beliefs constrained him. Confronted with the same evidence as his contemporary, Bachman continued to hold fast to a faith in one "special act of creation" (xxxviii). The editors conclude that Bachman's "theology did not allow him to draw that logical, empirical conclusion" (xl and lxi). But Bachman, along with many other nineteenth-century naturalists, saw no conflict between his religion and his science. Instead, he spoke often of the harmony between divine truth as revealed in the book of the Bible and the divine truth found in the "book of nature" (see his Duties of Ministers, 1848, 15). Thus, although these essays focus on scientific descriptions of animals' habits, ranges, and general characteristics, Bachman does not hesitate at times to attribute an animal's particular adaptation to divine intent. A "wise Providence," for example, has adapted the "organs of vision" of the common American shrew mole to accommodate the "subterraneous life they lead" (56). By design, this anthology tells us almost as much about nineteenth-century America as it does about the animals it describes. Two facets of nineteenth-century life, however, make this a somewhat disquieting book. Indeed, as the editors note, in a slightly different context, the "Quadrupeds can be viewed as a study of God's darker side" (69). First, one cannot help but notice the casual, continuous, and disturbing violence directed toward the very animals so lovingly and carefully chronicled. Even set within the context of a common nineteenth-century "speciesism," the editors do not attempt to excuse or defend Audubon and Bachman on this matter. End Page 115 Secondly, Quadrupeds, like many works of its time, reveals a nineteenth-century America filled with a disturbingly casual attitude toward, and acceptance of, the enslavement of others...