Edward Curtis was dashing, charismatic, a passionate mountaineer, a famous photographer--the Annie Leibovitz of his time. And in 1900 he gave it all up to pursue his Great Idea: he would try to capture on film the Native American nation before it disappeared.

At once an exhilarating adventure and a penetrating biography, Egan’s book tells the remarkable untold story behind Curtis's iconic photographs, following him throughout Indian country from desert to rain forest as he struggled to document the stories and rituals of more than eighty tribes. Even with the backing of Theodore Roosevelt and J. P. Morgan, it took tremendous perseverance--six years alone to persuade the Hopi to allow him into their Snake Dance ceremony. The undertaking changed him profoundly, from detached observer to outraged advocate. He would die penniless and unknown in Hollywood just a few years after publishing the last of his twenty volumes. But the charming rogue with the grade school education had fulfilled his promise--creating one of America's most stunning cultural achievements.
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