Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis - Couverture souple

"In this hauntingly beautiful book, Egan brings Curtis to life as vividly and with as much depth, heart and understanding as Curtis himself put into his timeless portraits. This is a story for the ages.” — Candice Millard, author of The River of Doubt and Destiny of the Republic  "Edward Curtis’s hauntingly beautiful photographs have graced gallery walls and coffee tables for generations—and his work remains essential to our conception of the American West. Now, in this extraordinary biography, Tim Egan has deftly captured the man behind the images, revealing a great American adventurer who lived at the fragile, fertile intersection of history, anthropology, and art.” — Hampton Sides, author of Blood and Thunder "Short Nights is not only the marvelous and rollicking account of life of one of America's extraordinary photographers. It is also a book about the extreme personal cost of outsize ambition. Edward Curtis undertook one of the most epic cultural projects in American history — photographing and documenting the vanishing ways of life of some eighty American Indian tribes. It cost him almost everything he once was. And still he persisted, turning out some of the greatest photographic and ethnological work ever done. Egan has found yet another great subject and has crafted yet another great narrative around it.” — S. C. Gwynne, author of Empire of the Summer Moon "[Short Nights] mesmerizes--it's instructive, entertaining and a joy to read . . . When it comes to superlative historical writing, this is as good as it gets . . . Dazzling." -- Shelf Awareness "A vivid exploration of one man's lifelong obsession with an idea . . .Egan's spirited biography might just bring [Curtis] the recognition that eluded him in life." -- Washington Post "A darn good yarn. Egan is a muscular storyteller and his book is a rollicking page-turner with a colorfully drawn hero." -- San Francisco Chronicle "An astonishing story, worth knowing and well told." –- Cleveland Plain Dealer "A remarkable story." -- Oregonian
"Egan fills his chronicle with bright turns of phrase and radiant descriptions, making both places and people come alive . . . A sweeping tale about two vanishing ways of life." -- Wall St. Journal
"Egan writes this fascinating biography with a compelling and occasionally creative narrative that challenges the age-old ratio of a picture's worth to a thousand words. Egan somehow makes both more valuable."-- USA  Today
"[Egan] artfully frames a stunning portrait of Edward Curtis that captures every patina of his glory, brilliance, and pathos.  [Egan] writes with passion and grace." -- Christian Science Monitor
"The author gracefully transforms the past into vivid scenes that employ all five senses." -- Star Tribune
"Egan brings liveliness and a wealth of detail to his biography of the legendary American photographer Edward Sheriff Curtis . . . a riveting biography of an American original." - Boston Globe
"Insightful and entetaining . . . Egan's excellent book stands as a fitting tribute to an American original who fought for a people with his camera and his art." -- LA Times
"[A] captivating tribute to a treasured American and the treasures he created."-- Dallas Morning News
"Egan's keen sense of place, people and history makes 'Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher' an exceptional marriage of author and subject." -- Bloomberg
"Egan's superb biography is actually a double portrait--of Curtis and also the Native American struggle to resist assimilation." -- Newsweek

“A vivid exploration of one man's lifelong obsession with an idea . . . Egan’s spirited biography might just bring [Curtis] the recognition that eluded him in life.” — Washington Post

Edward Curtis was charismatic, handsome, a passionate mountaineer, and a famous portrait photographer, the Annie Leibovitz of his time. He moved in rarefied circles, a friend to presidents, vaudeville stars, leading thinkers. But when he was thirty-two years old, in 1900, he gave it all up to pursue his Great Idea: to capture on film the continent’s original inhabitants before the old ways disappeared.

Curtis spent the next three decades documenting the stories and rituals of more than eighty North American tribes. It took tremendous perseverance — ten years alone to persuade the Hopi to allow him to observe their Snake Dance ceremony. And the undertaking changed him profoundly, from detached observer to outraged advocate. Curtis would amass more than 40,000 photographs and 10,000 audio recordings, and he is credited with making the first narrative documentary film. In the process, the charming rogue with the grade school education created the most definitive archive of the American Indian.

“A darn good yarn. Egan is a muscular storyteller and his book is a rollicking page-turner with a colorfully drawn hero.” — San Francisco Chronicle

"A riveting biography of an American original." – Boston Globe