William Henry Jackson's "The Pioneer Photographer"

Good product, good price and good delivery. It was exactly as described. Thank you. JC

William Henry Jackson's autobiography, "Time Exposure", was published in 1940. He was then 97. He had been writing it for 80 years, and lived another 2. My volume, a reprint, has a few of his photographs, of poor quality, and some of his sketches. I only recently re-read it, was once again amazed at the sweep of history this man truly lived, all the while developing his artistic (he painted well into late-life) and photographic skills, while participating in some of the greatest explorations and experiences of our American West.But "Time Exposure" is his second autobiography, encompassing his entire life, with notably less detail in its latter reaches, and relying upon his first, published in 1929 when he was only 86 and with much greater retention and ability to review the notes and sketches he'd begun making even before soldiering in the Civil War. Therein, he does not describe his life in Denver and subsequent wanderinging and work for the Railroads, instead ending with the close of the Hayden surveys, when he explored with those Immortals, Hayden himself, and his good friend Thomas Moran, the artist who excelled over even Bierstadt. This was the making of legends.My volume of his first autobiography, entitled "The Pioneer Photographer", is the 2005 reprint of 1929's. It has numerous black and white, as well as colored, sketches, paintings and photographs. Ansel Adams is not remembered as a pianist, nor, unfortunately, Jackson as the artist, and I was so pleased to see the art, both chemical and of pencil and brush, that he created of the events he wrote so eloquently about with such passion.There are many finer sources for Jackson's photographs than found in these two autobiographies. The Internet is rich with them, and they are interspersed in the numerous Americana books of our West. My volume of "Picture Maker of the Old West", published in 1949, has more, larger and better quality photographs and sketches by Jackson, but without the depth of his autobiographies. And the phenomenal creation of Sundance Press, publishing in the original large-format contact prints Jackson's Railroad pictures, can never be equaled.There are other volumes of his photographs available, but apparently none with the synthesis of "The Pioneer Photographer" with its fluid text of high adventure and often humorous description, and accompanying artwork and photographs. So take your pick, and pick well, for this man is unequaled, and no one volume will contain all.

I've just started reading the book, the biographical sections are extensive and interesting. They might, in fact, be the best part of the book (together with the update/ annotations).I was hoping for a large collection of Mr. Jacksons photographs but instead got more text than anything. You do get some photographs but they tend to be small, not full page (they are interesting). I didn't count them but believe that there are more sketches and paintings than photographs of the man's subjects.One thing I noted was that the editor of this edition writes that many of the photographs are "attributed to", meaning either no one is certain of the photographer but think he did them or even that an employee actually did the work.If what you really want are 1870's photographs you'll have to find another Jackson book somewhere to get many of them.

Buon libro per chi conosce l'inglese. Praticamente non ci sono fotografie, quindi per chi come me, lo dovesse comprare per vedere le immagini dell'autore getterebbe via i soldi. Viceversa un buon libro, ben rilegato e con ottima carta da tenere in libreria.