The feather thief : beauty, obsession, and the natural history heist of the century
On June 2009, after performing a concert at London's Royal Academy of Music, twenty-year-old American flautist Edwin Rist boarded a train for a suburban outpost of the British Museum of Natural History. Home to one of the largest ornithological collections in the world, the Tring museum was full of rare bird specimens whose gorgeous feathers were worth staggering amounts of money to the men who shared Edwin's obsession: the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying. Once inside the museum, the champion fly-tier grabbed hundreds of bird skins--some collected 150 years earlier by a contemporary of Darwin's, Alfred Russel Wallace, who'd risked everything to gather them--and escaped into the darkness. Two years later, Kirk Wallace Johnson was waist high in a river in northern New Mexico when his fly-fishing guide told him about the heist. He was soon consumed by the strange case of the feather thief. What would possess a person to steal dead birds? Had Edwin paid the price for his crime? What became of the missing skins? In his search for answers, Johnson was catapulted into a years-long, worldwide investigation. The story of a bizarre and shocking crime, and one man's relentless pursuit of justice, The Feather Thief is also an exploration of obsession, and man's destructive instinct to harvest the beauty of nature.
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- ISBN: 9781101981610
- Physical Description x, 308 pages : illustrations (some colour) ; 24 cm
- Publisher New York : Viking, [2018]
- Copyright c2018.
Content descriptions
General Note: | This NFPL book club kit contains 11 books. |
Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Additional Information
LDR | 02947nom a2200373 4500 | ||
---|---|---|---|
001 | 234622 | ||
003 | NFPL | ||
005 | 20201104141426.0 | ||
008 | 180607s2018 nyufc e b 001 0 eng | ||
020 | . | ‡a9781101981610 | |
035 | . | ‡a(OCoLC)999407802 | |
040 | . | ‡aDLC ‡beng ‡erda ‡cDLC ‡dCN5O4 ‡dYDX ‡dOCLCO ‡dOCLCQ ‡dLPU ‡dQQ3 ‡dZHB ‡dFM0 ‡dILC ‡dTCH ‡dJQW ‡dIUK ‡dYDX ‡dOCLCO ‡dTKL ‡dIFJ ‡dVP@ ‡dCaOL | |
100 | 1 | . | ‡aJohnson, Kirk W., ‡0(DLC)no2013105384 ‡eauthor. ‡0(NFPL)62321 |
245 | 1 | 4. | ‡aThe feather thief : ‡bbeauty, obsession, and the natural history heist of the century / ‡cKirk Wallace Johnson. |
264 | 1. | ‡aNew York : ‡bViking, ‡c[2018] | |
264 | 4. | ‡cc2018. | |
300 | . | ‡ax, 308 pages : ‡billustrations (some colour) ; ‡c24 cm | |
336 | . | ‡atext ‡btxt ‡2rdacontent | |
337 | . | ‡aunmediated ‡bn ‡2rdamedia | |
338 | . | ‡avolume ‡bnc ‡2rdacarrier | |
500 | . | ‡aThis NFPL book club kit contains 11 books. | |
504 | . | ‡aIncludes bibliographical references and index. | |
520 | . | ‡aOn June 2009, after performing a concert at London's Royal Academy of Music, twenty-year-old American flautist Edwin Rist boarded a train for a suburban outpost of the British Museum of Natural History. Home to one of the largest ornithological collections in the world, the Tring museum was full of rare bird specimens whose gorgeous feathers were worth staggering amounts of money to the men who shared Edwin's obsession: the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying. Once inside the museum, the champion fly-tier grabbed hundreds of bird skins--some collected 150 years earlier by a contemporary of Darwin's, Alfred Russel Wallace, who'd risked everything to gather them--and escaped into the darkness. Two years later, Kirk Wallace Johnson was waist high in a river in northern New Mexico when his fly-fishing guide told him about the heist. He was soon consumed by the strange case of the feather thief. What would possess a person to steal dead birds? Had Edwin paid the price for his crime? What became of the missing skins? In his search for answers, Johnson was catapulted into a years-long, worldwide investigation. The story of a bizarre and shocking crime, and one man's relentless pursuit of justice, The Feather Thief is also an exploration of obsession, and man's destructive instinct to harvest the beauty of nature. | |
590 | . | ‡aCopies counted Aug. 5. 21 TE | |
600 | 1 | 0. | ‡aRist, Edwin. ‡0(DLC)no2018106645 ‡0(NFPL)89635 |
610 | 2 | 0. | ‡aNatural History Museum (London, England) ‡0(DLC)n 94113332 ‡0(NFPL)85521 |
650 | 0. | ‡aTheft from museums ‡0(DLC)sh 92001864 ‡zGreat Britain. ‡0(DLC)n 79023147 | |
650 | 0. | ‡aZoological specimens ‡0(DLC)sh 85149980 ‡zGreat Britain. ‡0(DLC)n 79023147 | |
650 | 0. | ‡aFly tying ‡0(DLC)sh 85049589 ‡zGreat Britain. ‡0(DLC)n 79023147 | |
650 | 0. | ‡aBook clubs (Discussion groups) ‡0(DLC)sh2003003058 ‡vHandbooks, manuals, etc. ‡0(DLC)sh 99001300 | |
655 | 7. | ‡aHandbooks and manuals. ‡2lcgft ‡0(DLC)gf2014026109 ‡0(NFPL)296 | |
905 | . | ‡uteveraert | |
930 | . | ‡aMARCIVE (022023) | |
901 | . | ‡a234622 ‡bNFPL ‡c234622 ‡tbiblio |