In the process, the charming rogue with the grade school education created the most definitive archive of the American Indian. Curtis would amass more than 40,000 photographs and 10,000 audio recordings, and he is credited with making the first narrative documentary film. And the undertaking changed him profoundly, from detached observer to outraged advocate.

It took tremendous perseverance - ten years alone to persuade the Hopi to allow him to observe their Snake Dance ceremony. 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.Ĭurtis spent the next three decades documenting the stories and rituals of more than eighty North American tribes. He moved in rarefied circles, a friend to presidents, vaudeville stars, leading thinkers. 350) and index.įirst picture - Encounter on a volcano - The Big Idea - Indian Napoleon - With the President - In the den of the titan - Anglos in Indian country - The artist and his audience - The Custer conundrum - The most remarkable man - On the river of the West - New art forms - Moving pictures - Lost days - Second wind - The longest days - Fight to the finish - Twilight - Revival.Edward Curtis was charismatic, handsome, a passionate mountaineer, and a famous portrait photographer, the Annie Leibovitz of his time.

Publisher: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012.Ĭontent descriptions Bibliography, etc.

But the charming rogue with the grade-school education had fulfilled his promise-his great adventure succeeded in creating one of America's most stunning cultural achievements.'.

He would die penniless and unknown in Hollywood just a few years after publishing the last of his twenty volumes. The undertaking changed him profoundly, from detached observer to outraged advocate. Morgan, it took tremendous perseverance-six years alone to convince the Hopi to allow him into their Snake Dance ceremony. Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher by Timothy Egan hamishpatterson high frequency tribe 104K subscribers Subscribe 986 views 5 years ago WEEKLY upload. Even with the backing of Theodore Roosevelt and J.P. At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, Egan's book tells the remarkable untold story behind Curtis's iconic photographs, following him throughout Indian country from desert to rainforest as he struggled to document the stories and rituals of more than eighty tribes. Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis by Timothy Egan Reviewed by Janice Riley Edward S. And he was thirty-two years old in 1900 when he gave it all up to pursue his great idea: He would try to capture on film the Native American nation before it disappeared. 'Edward Curtis was dashing, charismatic, a passionate mountaineer, a famous photographer-the Annie Liebowitz of his time.

Short nights of the shadow catcher