Short nights of the Shadow Catcher : the epic life and immortal photographs of Edward Curtis
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references (pages [331]-350) and index.

Edward Curtis was dashing, charismatic, a passionate mountaineer, a famous photographer--and in 1900 he was thirty-two years old when he gave all that up to pursue his great idea: he would try to capture on film the Native American nation before it disappeared. Egan tells the 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. This took tremendous perseverance, even with the backing of Theodore Roosevelt and J.P. Morgan; and the undertaking changed Curtis profoundly, turning him into an outraged advocate of Native American tribes. He would die penniless and unknown in Hollywood just a few years after publishing the last of his twenty volumes. But he had fulfilled his promise: his great adventure created one of America's most stunning cultural achievements.,--Adapted from publisher description.