The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History

The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century

As heard on NPR's This American Life

â€œAbsorbing . . . Though it's non-fiction,Â The Feather ThiefÂ contains many of the elements of a classic thriller.â€ â€”Maureen Corrigan, NPRâ€™s Fresh Air

â€œOne of the most peculiar and memorable true-crime books ever.â€Â â€”Christian Science Monitor

A rollicking true-crime adventure and a captivating journey into an underground world of fanatical fly-tiers and plume peddlers, for readers ofÂ The Stranger in the Woods,Â The Lost City of Z, andÂ The Orchid Thief.

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 skinsâ€”some collected 150 years earlier by a contemporary of Darwin's, Alfred Russel Wallace, who'd risked everything to gather themâ€”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.
Country USA
Brand Penguin Books
Manufacturer Penguin Books
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber 54005647
Color Multicolor
ReleaseDate 2019-04-23
UnitCount 1
Format Illustrated
EANs 9781101981634

Country	USA
Brand	Penguin Books
Manufacturer	Penguin Books
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	54005647
Color	Multicolor
ReleaseDate	2019-04-23
UnitCount	1
Format	Illustrated
EANs	9781101981634

The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century

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