As the summer of 1821 began, John James Audubon's ambition to create a comprehensive pictorial record of American birds was still largely a dream. Then, out of economic necessity, Audubon came to Oakley Plantation, a sprawling estate in Louisiana's West Feliciana Parish, Teeming with what Audubon described as an "almost supernatural" abundance of birds, the woods of Oakley galvanized his sense of possibility for one of the most audacious undertakings in the annals of art.<BR>In A Summer of Birds, journalist and essayist Danny Heitman sorts through the facts and romance of Audubon's summer at Oakley, a season that clearly shaped the destiny of the world's most famous bird artist. Heitman draws from a rich variety of sources - including Audubon's own extensive journals, more recent Audubon scholarship, and Robert Penn Warren's poetry - to create an excursion across time, linking the historical man Audubon to the present-day civic and cultural icon.