Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis

Timothy Egan chronicles the obsessed life of Edward Curtis, a prominent Seattle photographer who abandoned his family and financial security to document Indigenous North American cultures before their anticipated disappearance. Beginning in 1900, Curtis spent three decades visiting eighty tribes, capturing forty thousand images and ten thousand audio recordings of languages and music. Egan details the logistical nightmares of hauling glass-plate negatives across the frontier and the crushing struggle to fund "The North American Indian," a massive multi-volume set subsidized by J.P. Morgan.

This biography serves historians and readers interested in the ethics of ethnographic preservation and the history of the American West. It attracts those curious about the intersection of art, ego, and the federal policies that displaced the subjects of Curtis's work. Readers gain a technical understanding of early photography alongside a tragic account of a man who sacrificed his personal life to archive a heritage that the United States government was actively trying to erase.