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Foreword
Jean Rabin. Fougère. Laforêt. Jean-Jacques Audubon. John James Audubon. A man of many names and many lives - an adventurous and complex spirit. Though his journey was rich in real life stories and incidents, these weren't always enough for the man who lived through them: there is no doubt he invented, embellished or modified certain episodes - sometimes in good faith or forgetfulness, perhaps finally believing in his own confabulations.

His writings in particular have inspired our own retelling, which should be read as a more 'romanticised' version of Audubon's life. We hope this will give a fuller sense of the man than the mere facts ever could. The views expressed in Audubon's writings and in the speech of the characters is reflective of the oppressive attitudes and terminology of the time towards African Americans and indigenous peoples, and does not acknowledge the destruction caused by colonial expansion.

Despite the foibles, history will remember Audubon as an unparalleled ornithological painter, one of fledgling America's pioneer landscape adventurers, as well as a writer and one of the fathers of modern American ecology.

Enjoy.

Fabien Grolleau