{"product_id":"cosmic-scholar-the-life-and-times-of-harry-smith-9781250338105","title":"Cosmic Scholar: The Life and Times of Harry Smith","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eNamed one of the Best Books of 2023 by the \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e' Dwight Garner\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The first comprehensive biography of this hipster magus . . . [John Szwed] allows different sides of Smith's personality to catch blades of sun. He brings the right mixture of reverence and comic incredulity to his task.\" --Dwight Garner, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGrammy Award-winning music scholar and celebrated biographer John Szwed presents the first biography of Harry Smith, the brilliant eccentric who transformed twentieth century art and culture.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHe was an anthropologist, filmmaker, painter, folklorist, mystic, and walking encyclopedia. He taught Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe about the occult, swapped drugs with Timothy Leary, had a front-row seat to a young Thelonious Monk, lived with (and tortured) Allen Ginsberg, was admired by Susan Sontag, and was one of the first artists funded by Guggenheim Foundation. He was always broke, generally intoxicated, compulsively irascible, and unimpeachably authentic. Harry Smith was, in the words of Robert Frank, \"the only person I met in my life that transcended everything.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eCosmic Scholar\u003c\/i\u003e, the Grammy Award-winning music scholar and celebrated biographer John Szwed patches together, for the first time, the life of 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. He was an insatiable creator and collector, responsible for the influential\u003ci\u003e Anthology of American Folk Music \u003c\/i\u003eand 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eExhaustively researched, energetically told, and complete with a trove of images, \u003ci\u003eCosmic Scholar\u003c\/i\u003e is a feat of biographical restoration and the long overdue canonization of an American icon. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eIncludes black-and-white and color images\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Picador USA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/20\/2024\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781250338105\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 416\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.00lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.25h x 5.38w x 1.00d","brand":"John Szwed","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44337888166069,"sku":"9781250338105","price":18.7,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_d79f1a1f-0b28-429f-b0c4-5604c2441de2.jpg?v=1719329644","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/cosmic-scholar-the-life-and-times-of-harry-smith-9781250338105","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}