Overview

In 1872 an Englishman photographed a running horse in California and succeeded for the first time in capturing an image of high-speed motion - the crucial breakthrough that eventually made movies possible. From Muybridge's invention came Hollywood and from his patron's sponsorship of technological research came Silicon Valley - two industries that have most powerfully shaped the modern world. The story of Muybridge's own life while he was making his motion studies is equally riveting. He became an internationally renowned inventor and photographer whose pictures have now become classics - and in a blaze of publicity, stood trial for the murder of his wife's lover. Gripping and erudite, this is a fascinating biography of a true pioneer and the larger story of how time and space were revolutionized in the 19th century.

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9780747568414

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Reviews

'This is a book of powerful originality, offering a glimpse of what biography can be in the right hands' Daily Telegraph 'Muybridge's story, which Solnit tells with flair and feeling, is extraordinary in itself, yet it is also the story of the growth of an industry, and the way it went on to change the fortunes of Southern California' Sunday Times 'A history lesson recounted with wit and passion, it weaves together a remarkable story of an individual and an age in which the appliance of science would change the way we lived forever' Glasgow Herald 'Combines biography, cultural history and cinematography in a refreshing, well-written and absorbing bouillabaisse of a book' Independent

Author Information

Rebecca Solnit is an art critic and writer and the author of six acclaimed works of non-fiction including Wanderlust: A History of Walking. She lives in San Francisco.

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