An incredibly thorough, often fascinating, biography of a man who seemed to be right in the middle of some of the major cultural movements of the 20th century. The world would be worse without Harry Smith is this is the best distillation of his life and impact that I've read.

My first question is how did I never hear of this guy! I have heard of everyone else in his circle of artists that he had a great influence on and he is the brains behind (and the curator and collector for ) the Anthology of American Folk Music. He was a budding anthropologist who seemed most comfortable living outside of and observing society. He was a savant in so many ways -- a collector, an experimental filmmaker, and hung out with Patti Smith, Allen Ginsberg, Thelonious Monk, Robert Frank, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jonas Mekas, just to name a very few. He lived in many places from couch surfing to the Chelsea Hotel. He was almost like a zelig-like figure who was everywhere important and yet never really fit in. His battles with substance abuse ultimately derails him and alienates him from others. Yet, as much as he could be difficult sometimes, it was clear there were many (including Allen Ginsberg and Jerry Garcia) who took care of him financially to enable him to live the life he wanted. Again -how had I not heard of him? I am so glad this book is finally bringing his story to light. I recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an ARC and I left this review voluntarily.

Recently, I have been very into reading biographies of important fringe figures in art, literature and culture. I'm fascinated often by their methods and philosophies, which stand contrary to established norms, and which help break barriers of communication and understanding which arise from stagnation.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an advance copy of this biography on a man who spent every second he could learning, sharing, or just living his life, and the people he influenced or inspired an a variety of different ways.

Some people just aren't made for these times. Going without a meal to buy an album that is rare. Recording Native American ceremonies and learning of the are of knots. Reading and hording bits of esoteric knowledge, and sharing it with out payment or credit. Sometimes it is even creating works of art in film and animation, looking ahead in these arts, while drawing from the past. Some of these people spend their lives on the fringe, lost to time and culture, sometimes even lost to themselves. Others find like people, other artists, creators, creatives and learn from and influence them. Sharing what they have learned from hard lessons, observation, even from psychedelics. Harry Smith was kind of both, remembered by those who knew him, forgotten sadly by most of the culture he helped create. The name probably didn't help, nor did his nature, which is a shame for Smith accomplished much in his lifetime. Cosmic Scholar: The Life and Times of Harry Smith by writer and educator John Szwed tells the life of this Renaissance man whose works influenced so many others.

Harry Everett Smith was born in Portland, Oregon to an unconventional kind of family, which soon located to the Seattle area of Washington. Smith was a sickly child, undersized and underweight, but grew up with plenty of books which opened him up to the world. Smith became interested in the Native American tribes in the area, and began to talk to members, becoming trusted enough to watch some ceremonies, and with a friend make recordings, and lists of generational knowledge. Unfamiliar with the word anthropology, Smith began investigating the field and soon took classes in college, which opened him up to music, especially different kinds of music, from China, Japan, American folk, whatever was different and new. Soon he was collecting and trading vinyl, keeping the best stuff for himself, and amassing quite a collection. Time in California gave him an interest in art, with animation and film work also intriguing him. A Guggenheim Grant brought him to New York, and when the grant ran out he made a deal with Folkway Records to create the Anthology of American Folk Music, one of the most influential musical collections of all times. And he was just getting started.

A fascinating biography about a person who only comes around once in a while, a polymath who was self taught in so many fields, that touched so many to follow that it really is incredible to read. Music, art, animation, film, occult studies, so many famous people. And yet because of his nature, Smith's influence has really never been addressed. I was familiar with the name from other biographies, but never really put together that this Harry Smith was really the same person. The biography is really very well done. I can't imagine the work the Szwed had to do, interviews, tracking down stories that Smith told that sometimes could be real, or a lot of the times sometimes not. Szwed has a very good style, writing about Smith's life in full, but never letting the narrative drag or just become a list of achievements. And of achievements there are many. Each page has something interesting, a fact, or an idea that Smith followed. A wonderfully written book about an extraordinary life.

Recommended for readers of all sorts of genres and interests. Frankly a lot of podcasts could be made off of this book. Occult, lost religions, Native American culture art, anthropology, animation, movies, even a list of Smith's books that he kept are interesting. A book also for people who enjoy biographies on people that are hard to categorize, and for readers who enjoy very well written biographies.

This new biography by author John Szwed focuses on an elusive, mysterious character, of whom it would seem that only the testimonies of the people who knew him remain. However, his artistic imprint has remained in history, influencing other artists of greater renown. It is very likely that this book will give some much needed and overdue notoriety to Harry Smith, who in life, ironically, would seem to have sought anonymity. Making a timeline of Smith's life was hard work on the part of the author, as Smith left very few interviews or correspondence after his death, and the legacy he left us are his experimental short films, some of his paintings and, mainly, the great musical work of having compiled the famous and seminal Anthology of American Folk Music (for which he was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991). It is for this type of work that he remains known today, but author Szwed also reminds us of the great anthropological work that Smith did at a very young age by collecting everything possible about American Indian tribes: from their music, dances, and crafts; research that, while not professional - since Smith never technically studied anthropology - influenced other researchers who studied these communities, which until that time, were not quite in academics' interest. Like many artists, Smith lived very close to poverty despite being awarded one of the first Guggenheim grants, and what he did to subsist was to borrow money from his artist friends, who were not doing so well financially either. Smith would stop eating in order to buy books that interested him, be it anthropology or occultism (a subject on which he became an expert), or to be able to buy vinyl albums, as his obsession as a collector encompassed many subjects. His inclination to know everything was because he believed in the theory that all artistic works were in one way or another influenced by each other and represented a unified culture, hence his disposition in trying to connect the different artistic methods, from tattoos to Ukrainian Easter eggs. His, apparently, scattershot interests were also reflected in his eccentric personality: he was prone to anger fits and over drinking, which made the people around him feel at the same time uncomfortable and in awe. The difficult task of obtaining testimonies from the people who knew Smith is accomplished by author Szwed, who has written biographies of off-the-radar characters before, and here he offers us a rich overview not only of Smith's wide-ranging interests but also of the state of experimental cinema, the nascent anthropology and the American art scene. While Smith might seem a difficult person to sympathize with, at the very least this biography should be read to learn about his many contributions to culture that influenced many more well-known figures such as Jonas Mekas, Bob Dylan, Stan Brakhage or Allen Ginsberg. ~