Other edition: Pb. reprint 2004. Pb. reprint published under the title: Motion studies: Time, space & [and] Eadweard Muybridge. London 2004. - 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. (Publisher’s text). - Nur Kurztitelaufnahme 01.2008.

This book is an unabridged, slightly corrected republication of the work originally published by Grossman Publishers, a division of the Viking Press, New York, in 1975. - Fascinating biography not only details Muybridge's groundbreaking photographic work, but also recounts his early life in England, his stormy relationship with Leland Stanford, his marriage to a young beauty, and his acquittal on murder charges after shooting her lover, and reflections on his collaboration with artist Thomas Eakins and Muybridge’s influence on Frederic Remington and Marcel Duchamp.

Text engl.

*Other edition: First published under the title: River of shadows. Eadweard Muybridge and the technological Wild West. New York 2003.

Other edition: Hc. ed. New York: Viking 2003. Ident. pb. ed. published under the title: Motion studies: Time, space & [and] Eadweard Muybridge. London 2004.