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The Resource The feather thief : beauty, obsession, and the natural history heist of the century, by Kirk Wallace Johnson

The feather thief : beauty, obsession, and the natural history heist of the century, by Kirk Wallace Johnson

Creator
Author
Summary
"On a cool June evening in 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 gripping story of a bizarre and shocking crime, and one man's relentless pursuit of justice, The Feather Thief is also a fascinating exploration of obsession, and man's destructive instinct to harvest the beauty of nature."--Page 2 of cover
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Edition
Large print edition.
Extent
483 pages (large print), 16 unnumbered pages of (black and white) plates : illustrations, portraits
Contents
  • The trials of Alfred Russel Wallace
  • Lord Rothschild's Museum
  • The feather fever
  • Birth of a movement
  • The Victorian Brotherhood of Fly-tiers
  • The future of fly-tying
  • Featherless in London
  • Plan for museum invasion.doc
  • The case of the broken window
  • "A very unusual crime"
  • Hot birds on a cold trail
  • Fluteplayer 1988
  • Behind bars
  • Rot in hell
  • The diagnosis
  • The Asperger's defense
  • The missing skins
  • The 21st International Fly Tying Symposium
  • The lost memory of the ocean
  • Chasing leads in a time machine
  • Dr. Prum's thumb drive
  • "I'm not a thief"
  • Three days in Norway
  • Michelangelo vanishes
  • Feathers in the bloodstream
Isbn
9781432853174
Instance
Label
The feather thief : beauty, obsession, and the natural history heist of the century
Title
The feather thief
Title remainder
beauty, obsession, and the natural history heist of the century
Statement of responsibility
by Kirk Wallace Johnson
Creator
Author
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
"On a cool June evening in 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 gripping story of a bizarre and shocking crime, and one man's relentless pursuit of justice, The Feather Thief is also a fascinating exploration of obsession, and man's destructive instinct to harvest the beauty of nature."--Page 2 of cover
Member of
Cataloging source
LBSOR/DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Johnson, Kirk W
Dewey number
364.16/28598
Illustrations
  • illustrations
  • plates
Index
no index present
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
Series statement
Thorndike Press large print popular and narrative nonfiction
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Natural History Museum (London, England)
  • Rist, Edwin
  • Theft from museums
  • Zoological specimens
  • Fly tying
  • Large type books
  • Natural history museums
  • NATURE
  • TRAVEL
  • TRUE CRIME
  • Natural History Museum (London, England)
  • Fly tying
  • Theft from museums
  • Zoological specimens
  • Great Britain
Label
The feather thief : beauty, obsession, and the natural history heist of the century, by Kirk Wallace Johnson
Instantiates
Publication
Copyright
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
The trials of Alfred Russel Wallace -- Lord Rothschild's Museum -- The feather fever -- Birth of a movement -- The Victorian Brotherhood of Fly-tiers -- The future of fly-tying -- Featherless in London -- Plan for museum invasion.doc -- The case of the broken window -- "A very unusual crime" -- Hot birds on a cold trail -- Fluteplayer 1988 -- Behind bars -- Rot in hell -- The diagnosis -- The Asperger's defense -- The missing skins -- The 21st International Fly Tying Symposium -- The lost memory of the ocean -- Chasing leads in a time machine -- Dr. Prum's thumb drive -- "I'm not a thief" -- Three days in Norway -- Michelangelo vanishes -- Feathers in the bloodstream
Control code
on1041709357
Dimensions
22 cm.
Edition
Large print edition.
Extent
483 pages (large print), 16 unnumbered pages of (black and white) plates : illustrations, portraits
Form of item
large print
Isbn
9781432853174
Lccn
2018013175
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations
System control number
(OCoLC)1041709357
Label
The feather thief : beauty, obsession, and the natural history heist of the century, by Kirk Wallace Johnson
Publication
Copyright
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
The trials of Alfred Russel Wallace -- Lord Rothschild's Museum -- The feather fever -- Birth of a movement -- The Victorian Brotherhood of Fly-tiers -- The future of fly-tying -- Featherless in London -- Plan for museum invasion.doc -- The case of the broken window -- "A very unusual crime" -- Hot birds on a cold trail -- Fluteplayer 1988 -- Behind bars -- Rot in hell -- The diagnosis -- The Asperger's defense -- The missing skins -- The 21st International Fly Tying Symposium -- The lost memory of the ocean -- Chasing leads in a time machine -- Dr. Prum's thumb drive -- "I'm not a thief" -- Three days in Norway -- Michelangelo vanishes -- Feathers in the bloodstream
Control code
on1041709357
Dimensions
22 cm.
Edition
Large print edition.
Extent
483 pages (large print), 16 unnumbered pages of (black and white) plates : illustrations, portraits
Form of item
large print
Isbn
9781432853174
Lccn
2018013175
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations
System control number
(OCoLC)1041709357

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