Clay Henderson Books
Audubon's Birds of Florida
Overview
Audubon’s Birds of Florida captures the history and art of John James Audubon’s six-month expedition to the Florida Territory in 1831-32. Written by award-winning environmental advocate and author, Clay Henderson, the book chronicles Audubon’s paintings and descriptions of previously unknown birds of the Florida wilderness. The narrative retraces his journeys through swamps, encounters with Indians and pirates, and survival from violent storms. Henderson visited and searched for birds in all the places Audubon visited from the St. Johns River to Dry Tortugas. The beauty of this book is its high-resolution reproductions of all the thirty-nine birds Audubon painted from Florida together with fifty additional Florida birds from Birds of America. The vivid colors and lifelike images allow the birds to appear to fly off the pages. These iconic prints are an impressive component of the collections of Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art of the Museum of Arts and Sciences.
Testimonials
“Audubon’s Birds of Florida is a wondrous book that features 91 beautiful prints of birds that artist John James Audubon drew during his 1831-32 travels in Florida. Author Clay Henderson recounts Audubon’s travels as well, lending new insight into Audubon’s vision and the marvelous avian life he found while journeying the length of the peninsula. This is a must for anyone interested in Florida history and birds—a delight for the mind and eyes.”
I am so astounded by Clay Henderson’s latest book, Audubon’s Birds of Florida, published in collaboration with the Museum of Arts and Sciences and the Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art in Daytona Beach! Clay’s description of John James Audubon’s adventures in Florida reads like a travel novel, full of action and adversities, depicting the people and places he visited and the trials and difficulties of his treks and voyages across primitive Florida. Additionally, the prints of Audubon’s birds are vibrant, with startling colors, true to the original plates produced by Havell. Each species plate is accompanied by the details of its production, where the birds were collected, who added plants or backgrounds. This brings home the process and care that went into each portrait.
Working in the field, without the benefit of modern technology, communication, or convenience of travel, Audubon’s skill and biological knowledge shine in each species depiction as he worked to bring the birds to us lifelike. Everyone will enjoy this book and appreciate it as a new look at the enormous artistic product accomplished by Audubon.
“Clay Henderson’s Audubon’s Birds of Florida,” offers a delightful journey into Florida’s early nineteenth frontier. Lavishly illustrated with the naturalist’s iconic prints of birds in their natural setting, Henderson’s work includes a rich narrative of Audubon’s 1831-1832 Florida expedition, along with the birds he painted. Henderson, the Daytona Museum of Arts and Science, and Hyatt and Cici Brown (from whose collection this work springs) have gifted Floridians with a beautiful book.”
“Audubon’s Birds of Florida fills an important knowledge gap of the artist’s travels and observations in my home state. Clay Henderson adds his own detailed perspective to selected Audubon writings about birds the artist would have seen and heard in Florida. Lovers of birds and wildlife art are familiar with Audubon’s prints and the way his work helped change views of nature. This book reproduces the familiar plates but offers so much more. Henderson, whose previous books demonstrate his skill as a writer, updates and interprets our understanding of Audubon with thoughtful essays and the insights of an admired Florida naturalist and historian. ”
“If anyone thought that Clay Henderson’s “Forces of Nature” was a one-and-done capstone book, a history of conservation in Florida by one of its major players, they are in for a very pleasant surprise. Henderson has doubled down with his latest book Audubon’s Birds of Florida. It is visual and historical homerun.
Drawing on his skills as a lawyer and historian he has put in the work, but his Southern roots allow a narrative style that reminds us that stories are simply facts with a human face. The result is visual and historical delight.
In his work, Henderson eschews hagiography and tells the story of John James Audubon with fairness to the man, his times, his strengths and weaknesses, and the geography of Florida as he found it. Audubon’s plates are presented in a visually striking way, with Florida-centric historical contexts that illuminate the images. Henderson’s love of his subject and Florida.
Finally, Henderson includes an interview homage to Hyatt and Cici Brown, whose collection of Florida art is the finest in Florida and served as a springboard for his work.
To anyone with a love of Florida history, it is a second spotlight on the role of conservation in that history. The reader is left only to say to the author: “more, Clay, more…keep ‘em comin’…” ”
Forces of Nature: A History of Florida Land Conservation
Winner of the Stetson Kennedy Book Award from the Florida Historical Society "that casts light on historic Florida events in a manner that is supportive of human rights, traditional cultures, and the natural environment."
Overview
The activists and victories that made Florida a leader in land preservation.
Despite Florida’s important place at the beginning of the American conservation movement and its notable successes in the fight against environmental damage, the full story of land conservation in the state has not yet been told. In this comprehensive history, Clay Henderson celebrates the individuals and organizations who made the Sunshine State a leader in state-funded conservation and land preservation.
Starting with early naturalists like William Bartram and John Muir who inspired the movement to create national parks and protect the country’s wilderness, Forces of Nature describes the efforts of familiar heroes like Marjory Stoneman Douglas and May Mann Jennings and introduces lesser-known champions like Frank Chapman, who helped convince Theodore Roosevelt to establish Pelican Island as the first national wildlife refuge in the United States. Henderson details how many of Florida’s activists, artists, philanthropists, and politicians have worked to designate threatened land for use as parks, preserves, and other conservation areas.
Drawing on historical sources, interviews, and his own long career in environmental law, Henderson recounts the many small victories over time that helped Florida create several units of the national park system, nearly thirty national wildlife refuges, and one of the best state park systems in the country. Forces of Nature will motivate readers to join in defending Florida’s natural wonders.
Testimonials
“Anyone who wants to learn more about Florida’s struggle to conserve its many unique natural landscapes will want to read this book. In addition to introducing the historical cast of characters who engaged in land conservation in Florida, Henderson reviews recent land conservation history in the state and provides a treasure trove of stories about strategies, struggles, and successes.”
“If you care about protecting Florida’s unique natural areas and wildlife habitat, Forces of Nature is a must-read. Henderson’s account of how Florida’s most important parks and ecosystems were preserved and the passionate individuals who made it happen will be an inspiration for those who will write the next chapters of our state’s conservation history.”
“Clay Henderson [is] the undisputed expert on land conservation law in Florida:
“The book tells the backstory of the Floridians who fought against overdevelopment, sprawl and exploitation of resources to save choice sections of natural Florida.”
“[The book] is a valuable resource that tells the stories about the property we managed to save.”
The Floridas
Overview
Landscape photographer Ian Adams teams up with environmentalist Clay Henderson to explore the many Floridas that rub shoulders and bump heads inside the borders of the Sunshine State.
Two hundred and eighty color photographs, closely supported by Adams’s extended captions and Henderson’s main text, take the reader on a grand tour of Florida’s natural and cultural beauty spots: seashores, springs, forests, wetlands, prairies, gardens, groves, and man-made structures ranging from prehistoric shell mounds to the mansions and roadside attractions of the last century.
Woven into the geographic fabric of the book are Henderson’s authoritative essays on Florida’s geology, hydrology, climate, wildlife, prehistory, history, population growth, immigration patterns, cracker culture, eccentric erections, notable naturalists, and battles royal among developers and environmentalists. Adams joins to every one of his photographs a deeply researched caption calculated to illumine and expand the main text.
