Preparing the Ghost: An Essay Concerning the Giant Squid and Its First Photographer

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 home, his own childhood and family history, and a catalog of peculiar facts that recall Melville ’s story of obsession with another deep-sea dwelling leviathan. “Totally original and haunting” (Flavorwire), Preparing the Ghost is a delightfully unpredictable inquiry into the big, beautiful human impulse to obsess.

The book, Preparing the Ghost: An Essay Concerning the Giant Squid and Its First Photographer [Bulk, Wholesale, Quantity] ISBN#9781631490569 in Paperback by Matthew Gavin Frank may be ordered in bulk quantities. Minimum starts at 25 copies. Availability based on publisher status and quantity being ordered.