"A vivid exploration of one man\'s lifelong obsession with an idea .
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. "A darn good yarn.
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.
Curtis spent the next three decades documenting the stories and rituals of more than eighty North American tribes.
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.
He moved in rarefied circles, a friend to presidents, vaudeville stars, leading thinkers.
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. . . "A vivid exploration of one man\'s lifelong obsession with an idea
