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

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Thorndike Press large print popular and narrative nonfictionPublisher: Waterville, Maine : Thorndike Press, a part of Gale, a Cengage Company, 2018Copyright date: ©2018Edition: Large print editionDescription: 483 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of (black and white) plates : illustrations, portraits : illustrations ; 22 cmContent type:
  • text
  • still image
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781432853174
  • 1432853171
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
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.
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.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Large Print Book Large Print Book Main Library Large Print NonFiction 364.1628 J67 Available 33111009569803
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In June 2009, after performing in London, American flautist Edwin Rist took a train to an outpost of the British Museum of Natural History. The Tring museum housed rare bird specimens worth staggering amounts to those who shared Edwin's obsession with the art of salmon fly-tying. Once inside he grabbed hundreds of bird skins, then escaped into the darkness. This is the gripping story of a bizarre and shocking crime, and one man's relentless pursuit of justice.

Includes bibliographical references.

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.

"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.

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