Preparing the Ghost
An Essay Concerning The Giant Squid And Its First Photographer
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Selection Memory, mythology, and obsession collide in this “slyly charming” (New York Times Book Review) account of the giant squid.
Named one of the Best Books of the Year by Shelf Awareness
In 1874, Moses Harvey—eccentric Newfoundland reverend and amateur naturalist—was the first person to photograph the near-mythic giant squid, draping it over his shower curtain rod to display its magnitude. In Preparing the Ghost, what begins as Harvey’s story becomes spectacularly “slippery and many-armed” (NewYorker.com) as Matthew Gavin Frank winds his narrative tentacles around history, creative nonfiction, science, memoir, and meditations about the interrelated nature of them all. In his full-hearted, lyrical style, Frank weaves in playful forays about his trip to Harvey’s Newfoundland…