Cosmic scholar : the life and times of Harry Smith / John Szwed.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Szwed, John F., 1936- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Smith, Harry, 1923-1991.

Smith, Harry.

Anthology of American folk music.

Artists--United States--Biography.

Artists.

Beats (Persons)--Biography.

Beats (Persons).

Motion picture producers and directors--United States--Biography.

Motion picture producers and directors.

Anthropologists--United States--Biography.

Anthropologists.

United States.

Genre:

Biographies

Biographies.

Physical Description:

404 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), map ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023.

Summary:

"A biography of filmmaker, anthropologist, and mystic Harry Smith"-- Provided by publisher.

He was an anthropologist, filmmaker, painter, folklorist, mystic, and walking encyclopedia-- and Szwed considers Harry Smith to be one of the twentieth century’s most overlooked cultural figures. From his time recording the customs of Native American tribes in the Pacific Northwest and Florida to his life in Greenwich Village in its heyday, Smith was consumed by an unceasing desire to create a unified theory of culture. An insatiable creator and collector, Smith was responsible for the influential Anthology of American Folk Music and several pioneering experimental films, but was also an insufferable and destructive eccentric who was unable to survive in regular society, or keep himself healthy or sober. -- adapted from jacket

Contents:

Harry Smith : an introduction

A boy's life

Dark they were, with golden eyes

Harry the Hipster

Harry Smith in New York

The anthologist

The parapsychologist

The anthropologist

Nights in Bohemia

Mahagonny

Lost and found

A New York ending.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 361-386) and index.

ISBN:

9780374282240

0374282242

OCLC:

1345215140