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More copies of this ISBN:This title in other formats:River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild Westby Rebecca Solnit
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:The world as we know it today began in California in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. This extraordinary assertion is at the heart of Rebecca Solnit's brilliant new work of cultural history. Weaving together biography, history, and fascinating insights into art, technology, landscape, and philosophy, Solnit has created a boldly original portrait of America on the threshold of modernity.
During a period of feverish creativity that commenced in 1872, Eadweard Muybridge succeeded for the first time in capturing and reanimating high-speed motion on film — the crucial breakthrough that made movies possible. He also continued his series of breathtaking photographs of the monumental landscape of the American West, served as official photographer of the grueling war against the Modoc Indians, and, in a blaze of publicity, stood trial for the murder of his wife's lover. In Solnit's taut, compelling narrative, Muybridge's life becomes a lens for a larger story about the transformation of time and space in the nineteenth century. With dazzling erudition and a rare mastery of the interlocking histories of art, technology, politics, and commerce, Solnit shows how the peculiar freedoms and opportunities of post-Civil War California led directly to the two industries — Hollywood and Silicon Valley — that have most powerfully defined the contemporary world. River of Shadows is Solnit's most captivating book yet-wide- ranging in its allusions, daring in its connections, always surprising in its conclusions. Review:"Noted author Solnit presents the life of the troubled, highly creative Eadweard Muybridge as a metaphor for the technological changes and human agonies that have marked the settlement of the American West and the development of that fast-moving, sometimes bizarre culture Americans know as 'Californian.' Solnit interprets the tumultuous life of Muybridge, the proto-inventor of motion pictures, against the backdrop of the subjects Muybridge photographed and the people who influenced him: wild Yosemite, burgeoning San Francisco, the doomed Modoc Indians, and crafty Leland Stanford. In this absorbing book, Muybridge's life unfolds as a never-ending quest for excellence. He abandons sequential successes with landscapes, war documentary, and panoramas of cities to focus on his cardinal work of transforming photography into a scientific instrument revealing the secret world of motion. Fittingly, the railroad magnate Leland Stanford, who transformed the American West with trains, became the patron of Muybridge's motion studies out of a desire to know if all four feet of a trotting horse were ever simultaneously free of the ground." Reviewed by Patrick LaRochelle, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review) Review:"Masterly and creative, Solnit's far-roaming synthesis is as unsettling as it is compelling." Donna Seaman, Booklist (Starred Review) Review:"Instead [of a regular biography], we have this vastly more valuable book, River of Shadows, a brilliant essay....[A] beautiful piece of prose." Jim Lewis, The New York Times Book Review Review:"Gracefully written, thoroughly well-considered....[Solnit] writes with considerable flair, her smart commentary illuminating the dozens of images that accompany her text. A welcome contribution to the literature of photography and of California." Kirkus Reviews Review:"It is the measure of Solnit's graceful, thoughtful book that she finds in cinema a 'breach in the wall between the past and the present' where machines and desires are reconciled." The Village Voice Review:"Solnit vividly recreates the wonder that greeted those primitive movies....If the book fails as biography, however, it succeeds as a critical essay on Muybridge's art and a reflection on the meaning of space and time." Publishers Weekly Review:"[A] perfect example of a subject waiting — in this case for almost a century and a half — for the appropriate writer to come along to unlock its concealed meaning and unexpected relevance." Michael Frank, The Los Angeles Times Review:"Although Solnit devotes much space to Muybridge's personal history...the narrative does not always bring Muybridge to life, nor does it always mesh comfortably with the larger social history. The writing is skillful and provocative but marred by too many digressions." Library Journal Synopsis:A brilliant cultural historian examines the life and times of the man who invented motion picture technology, and put California at the forefront of the modern world. Photos. Synopsis:"Solnit's best book so far" ("Chicago Tribune") is a boldly original portraitof the proto-inventor of motion pictures. The story of Muybridge--who in 1872succeeded in capturing high-speed motion photographically--becomes a lens fora larger story about the acceleration and industrialization of everyday life.320 pp.
Synopsis:Includes bibliographical references (p. 271-293) and index. About the AuthorRebecca Solnit, author of six highly praised works of nonfiction, including Secret Exhibition, Savage Dreams, and Hollow City, contributes essays about visual art, public space, landscape, and environmental issues to national magazines and museum exhibition catalogs. Table of ContentsThe Annihilation of Time and Space * 1 The Man with the Cloudy Skies * 25 Lessons of the Golden Spike * 55 Standing on the Brink * 75 Lost River * 101 A Day in the Life, Two Deaths, More Photographs * 125 Skinning the City * 153 Stopping Time * 177 The Artist in Motion and at Rest * 207 From the Center of the World to the Final Frontier * 239 Chronology 261 Notes 271 Acknowledgments 295 Photograph Credits 297 Index 299 What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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