Footnotes: Audubon's brush with Keats



One example of the Audubon's distinctive style in his landmark nature illustrations, for which he is most remembered



Last week (April 27^th), as you may have noticed from Google’s banner, was the anniversary of John James Audubon’s birthday.  Now it is no secret that I am a fan of birds and an amateur bird watcher, but I am ashamed to admit I know relatively nothing of Audubon, and what little I do know, I owe to Wikipedia- that is everything aside from this interesting little tidbit I learned while reading up on John Keats. Since my blog on Remnants and Footnotes is long overdue for a footnotes post this makes for an excellent opportunity. Audubon and John Keats never actually meet; however, they certainly knew something of each other, and the actions of Audubon would have a direct negative impact on Keats’ already tragic life.

John Keats

John Audubon

John Keats, the most famous of the Hampstead poets and the last and youngest of the early English romantic poets, had three siblings, George, Tom and Fanny.  Tom died of tuberculosis only a few years before the same disease took Keats himself at age 25.  Fanny had been sent to live as a ward after the death of their mother.  George, the eldest, lived in England in close proximity to both his brothers until 1818 when he and his wife, Georgiana immigrated to America.  

George Keats

At some point while scouting out communities to settle, George and Georgiana met Audubon in Hendersonville, Kentucky.  Before Audubon gained his fame from wildlife illustrations he owned a grist and lumber mill.  He had plans to start his own ferrying company on the Ohio and invited George to become a partner; consequently George invested the bulk of his meager savings into the venture.   Although the details surrounding the bad investment are vague, it was long believed that Audubon knew his steamboat boat was already at the bottom of the Mississippi River when he applied to George to invest.  However more recent scholarship has revealed that the circumstances were, at the least, more complicated:

“Using what was left of his own money and what he could raise from others, including George Keats, Audubon purchased a boat and resold it to another group of men… With his usual carelessness, he accepted their notes without checking their credit.  The notes proved to be worthless…With a skiff and two negroes as rowers, he chased the boat all the way to New Orleans, where he tried to have it attached. His efforts to regain his money proved fruitless.”*

With George broke, and in fact in debt, he had no choice but to turn to his brother in England, and eventually travel there himself in an attempt to gain access to his grandmother' legacy. In at least one letter Keats hints that one consequence of George coming back to England for funds was that he would not be able to marry.

Later in life, Audubon would refer to seeing the ghost of Georgiana Keats in London, evidence of his own regret about the circumstances. And please note this instance can certainly not be considered representative Audubon's life, it is merely a footnote, a very long footnote.

* Alexander B. Adams’ Audubon: A Biography, pp 180-2.
Other Sources on Keats:
Motion, Andrews. Keats: A Biogrpahy. Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1998