THE INVENTOR AND THE TYCOON: A GILDED AGE MURDER AND THE BIRTH OF MOVING PICTURES. by Ball, Edward - 2013

New York: Doubleday, 2013. 447 pp, 9 1/2" H. B&w photographs, reproductions. "(T)he compelling saga of an artistic genius, a ruthless railroad tycoon, and a sordid crime of passion. In frontier California 130 years ago, English immigrant Eadweard Muybridge managed to capture time and play it back on a screen, inventing stop-motion photography and moving pictures, breakthrough technologies that ushered in our age of visual media. Bankrolling his endeavor was tycoon (and former California governor) Leland Stanford, who built the west half of the transcontinental railroad and personally drove in the last golden spike. Stanford's particular obsession was whether the four hooves of a running horse ever left the ground all at once, and with Muybridge he found an answer. But personal disaster overshadowed Muybridge's remarkable achievements. A visionary artist, and technically brilliant, he was also a murderer." Very light wrinkling at bottom of spine. Dust jacket has minor edge wrinkling at top/bottom of spine and flap-folds, minor rubbing.. Hard Cover. Very Good+/Very Good+.