This copy of the 20-volume set of The North American Indian by Edward S. Curtis, published 1907–30, sold a week ago for $233,000 at the "Images and Objects: Fine and Vernacular Photographs" sale at Swann Auction Galleries in New York City. The first volume of the set is signed by Curtis and Theodore Roosevelt.
Mike
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Featured Comments from:
Carl Siracusa: "It's the accompanying portfolios of prints that are the real gems, large size and beautifully printed in Curtis's studio darkroom. The versions in the books are small (I would guess 5x7 inches), and of course printed on a press—though certainly worth a look if you can't get to the portfolios, which often were sold off separately.
"I recently spent a pleasant day poring over the books at the library of the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, after reading Timothy Egan's fine 2013 biography, Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher, which details Curtis's incredible devotion to this multi-decade project."
Another example of the artist living in poverty only for his work to gain great monetary value after his death. I am glad he was obsessive enough to pursue the project, but sorry he did not reap the fruits of that labor.
Posted by: Terry Letton | Thursday, 28 May 2015 at 10:20 PM
Twenty volume set, with accompanying portfolios, sold at Christie's in 2012 for near $2.9 million.
Posted by: Jeff | Thursday, 28 May 2015 at 10:49 PM
Is it available in a Kindle version? I can't afford that price.
Posted by: Owen R Auer | Thursday, 28 May 2015 at 11:21 PM
Have you read his bio? He was utterly obsessed. If anyone can claim that they did their life's work, he can, though at a very high personal cost.
Posted by: Andrew | Thursday, 28 May 2015 at 11:28 PM
Timothy Egan wrote a great book about Curtis's photo project called "Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher." Highly recommended. (Egan has won a Pulitzer and a National Book Award for some of his other work.)
Posted by: Scott | Thursday, 28 May 2015 at 11:34 PM
@terry
While it would be accurate to say that Curtis was obsessive and continued to work even through the difficult years, I disagree that he "did not reap the fruits of his labor". If you are interested, I'd highly recommend Timothy Egan's book about Curtis and his work called "Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher".
Posted by: Matt | Friday, 29 May 2015 at 12:42 AM
I second your recommendation, Scott. Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher is a very good book.
Posted by: Robert Billings | Friday, 29 May 2015 at 11:02 AM
Next to my copy of "Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher" is a book I found remaindered: "Edward S Curtis: Visions of the First Americans," by Don Gulbrandsen. It is not a bad collection for those of us who cannot afford the originals. I believe all his original photos have been scanned and can be viewed online, if you have quite a bit of free time for such a pursuit.
Posted by: Ruby | Friday, 29 May 2015 at 11:20 AM
Just an FYI.
All 20 volumes are available in their original form -- text included -- online at the USC Digital Library:
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/search/searchterm/Edward%20s%20Curtis/order/nosort?
If interested, you might also like to view the work of CC Pierce, who documented Native Americans in the southwest -- with a very different perspective: http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/search/collection/p15799coll65/searchterm/Native/field/all/mode/all/conn/and/order/title/ad/asc
Posted by: Matt | Saturday, 30 May 2015 at 02:12 AM