A New York Times Notable Book
A Winner of the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction
New York Times bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Timothy
Egan reveals the life story of the man determined to preserve a people
and culture in Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and
Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis.
"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." -- The 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.
