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John Bachman (1790-1874) was an internationally renowned naturalist and a prominent Lutheran minister. This is the first collection of his writings, containing selections from his three major books, his letters, and his articles on plants and animals, education, religion, agriculture, and the human species. Bachman was the leading authority on North American mammals. He was responsible for the descriptions of the 147 mammal species included in Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, a massive work produced in collaboration with John James Audubon. Bachman relied entirely on scientific evidence in his work and was exceptional among his fellow naturalists for studying the whole of natural history. Bachman also relied on scientific evidence in his Doctrine of the Unity of the Human Race. He showed that human beings constitute a single species that developed as varieties equivalent to the varieties of domesticated animals. In this work, perhaps his most significant accomplishment, Bachman stood nearly alone in challenging the polygenetic views of Louis Agassiz and others that white and black people descended from different progenitors. Bachman was also an important figure in the establishment of Lutheranism in the Southeast. He wrote the first American monograph on the doctrines of Martin Luther and the history of the Reformation. Bachman served for fifty-six years as minister of St. John's Lutheran Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and was one of the founders of Newberry College.

John Bachman (1790-1874) was an internationally renowned naturalist and a prominent Lutheran minister. This is the first collection of his writings, containing selections from his three major books, his letters, and his articles on plants and animals, education, religion, agriculture, and the human species. Bachman was the leading authority on North American mammals. He was responsible for the descriptions of the 147 mammal species included in Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, a massive work produced in collaboration with John James Audubon. Bachman relied entirely on scientific evidence in his work and was exceptional among his fellow naturalists for studying the whole of natural history. Bachman also relied on scientific evidence in his Doctrine of the Unity of the Human Race. He showed that human beings constitute a single species that developed as varieties equivalent to the varieties of domesticated animals. In this work, perhaps his most significant accomplishment, Bachman stood nearly alone in challenging the polygenetic views of Louis Agassiz and others that white and black people descended from different progenitors. Bachman was also an important figure in the establishment of Lutheranism in the Southeast. He wrote the first American monograph on the doctrines of Martin Luther and the history of the Reformation. Bachman served for fifty-six years as minister of St. John's Lutheran Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and was one of the founders of Newberry College.

Daniel Patterson and Eric Russell present a groundbreaking case for considering John James Audubon’s and John Bachman’s quadruped essays as worthy of literary analysis and redefine the role of Bachman, the perpetually overlooked coauthor of the essays. After completing The Birds of America (1826–38), Audubon began developing his work on the mammals. The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America volumes show an antebellum view of nature as fundamentally dynamic and simultaneously grotesque and awe-inspiring. The quadruped essays are rich with good stories about these mammals and the humans who observe, pursue, and admire them. For help with the science and the essays, Audubon enlisted the Reverend John Bachman of Charleston, South Carolina. While he has been acknowledged as coauthor of the essays, Bachman has received little attention as an American nature writer. While almost all works that describe the history of American nature writing include Audubon, Bachman shows up only in a subordinate clause or two. Tenacious of Life strives to restore Bachman’s status as an important American nature writer. Patterson and Russell analyze the coauthorial dance between the voices of Audubon, an experienced naturalist telling adventurous hunting stories tinged often by sentiment, romanticism, and bombast, and of Bachman, the courteous gentleman naturalist, scientific detective, moralist, sometimes cruel experimenter, and humorist. Drawing on all the primary and secondary evidence, Patterson and Russell tell the story of the coauthors’ fascinating, conflicted relationship. This collection offers windows onto the early United States and much forgotten lore, often in the form of travel writing, natural history, and unique anecdotes, all told in the compelling voices of Antebellum America’s two leading naturalists.

Letter, 7 December 1850, to the President of South Carolina College, believed to be William C. Preston (1794-1860), thanking him for an award from the South Carolina College Board of Trustees.

Bird of United States and Canada.

Correspondence from naturalist John Kirk Townsend (1809-1851), of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to naturalist John Bachman (1790-1874), of Charleston, South Carolina, dated from 1838 to 1848. In a letter dated January 21, 1838, Townsend mentions possibly writing an account of his part in the expedition of Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth (1802-1856) to the Pacific, as well as an appendix describing the mammals and birds he collected. He also offers to send some of the quadruped specimens to Bachman for description, including Canis nubilus, spotted lynx, and various species of hare, some of which were preserved in spirits and corrosive sublimate. He also writes in 1838 about sending additional quadrupeds to Bachman, such as squirrels, a weasel, and meadow mice, and a prospectus for his book, The Narrative of a journey across the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River and a Visit to the Sandwich Islands, which was published in 1839. In a letter dated September 27, 1843, Townsend urges Bachman to complete descriptions of the quadrupeds he had sent and discusses his new interest in entomology, asking if Bachman would collect and send him local insect specimens. "I am crazy for insects, & will do anything not dishonorable to obtain them," he writes. A letter dated March 16, 1848, expresses condolences for the death of one of Bachman's children, and asks him to return Townsend's quadruped specimens, which Townsend was planning to sell to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.

On March 4, 1862, John Bachman wrote a letter to Mrs. E. Horlbeck (Suzzy) thanking her for the offer of a horse to fulfill his responsibilities as a minister.

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