Mathew Brady

June 17, 2013
Everyone’s seen his photos—of a confidently cross-armed Whitman, a beardless Lincoln, Civil War dead on the battlefield—but few know much about Mathew Brady, the man behind the camera. In this detailed biography, Wilson (editor of The American Scholar) examines Brady’s rise and fall as the principal photographer of 19th-century America, a “master of promotion” and seminal documentarian of the Civil War. With a keen understanding of photography’s potential as an art form and medium for news, Brady catapulted himself before the public eye by shooting numerous famous personages—indeed, through this extensive network of movers and shakers, a portrait develops of a rapidly changing nation. Wilson does a grand job of bringing Brady’s era to life—rich descriptions of New York City (the location of Brady’s studio) and Washington, D.C., ground the book in a strong sense of place, and the author’s contextualization of numerous historic photographs adds depth to Brady’s magnificent work. Those with an interest in photography and the Civil War (and especially fans of Timothy Egan’s Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher) will savor this telling glimpse into the America first captured on film, and the man who made it happen. 16-page color insert, b&w illus. throughout.

June 15, 2013
The editor of the American Scholar tracks the career of America's pioneering photographer. "Brady and the Cooper Institute made me president." Harmless flattery, perhaps, but Abraham Lincoln's remark testified to the influence of his 1860 speech in New York City and to the widely distributed photograph taken that day by Mathew Brady (circa 1822-1896). With studios in New York and Washington, D.C., and already famous as a portraitist, Brady's galleries grew to contain a who's who of 19th-century distinction: writers like Poe, Cooper, Twain and Whitman; presidents from Quincy Adams to McKinley; statesmen like Clay, Calhoun and Webster; military leaders like John C. Fremont and Winfield Scott; and distinguished visitors like the Prince of Wales. Brady lured the well-heeled and, increasingly, the middle class through his doors to be similarly immortalized by the new technology that he and his assistants mastered and advanced. When the Civil War arrived, Brady and his team of photographers went into the field, and their unprecedented, comprehensive images of camp life, battlegrounds and soldiers documented the national catastrophe for all time. Wilson (The Explorer King: Adventure, Science, and the Great Diamond Hoax--Clarence in the Old West, 2006, etc.) concedes from the beginning that little is known about Brady's personal life--not even the place or date of his birth--but the author compensates with a thorough tracking and assessment of the professional career, describing for general readers the origins and swift growth of the photographic science, the team of variously skilled workers required to make the earliest images, and the controversies over photo attribution that persist. Wilson paints Brady as the consummate ringmaster, with a Barnum-like talent for selling himself and his product and for gathering and distributing images that made the phrase "photo by Brady" seemingly ubiquitous. A useful introduction to the man who established photographs as both works of art and important historical documents.

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July 1, 2013

Though few primary records of photographer Mathew Brady's life exist, Wilson (editor, American Scholar; The Explorer King) examines surviving business registers, articles, advertisements, and documents of Brady's associates and prestigious clients (as well as secondary sources) to flesh out the details. Setting Brady in the context of 19th-century photography and the notable personalities of the Civil War era, Wilson shows how Brady's artistic genius, both in the studio and in fieldwork; his awareness of the commercial value and historical impact of his art; his congenial personality; and his relentless and savvy promotion of himself, his business, and his craft made him the preeminent 19th-century photographer. Wilson challenges some myths and controversies regarding Brady's career, e.g., he notes only one instance of posing corpses in battlefield shots and refutes that Brady deliberately overshadowed the careers of his employees. No matter who was behind a Brady camera, it was Brady who had the vision and plan. Brady, says Wilson, deserves the credit for bestowing upon us a treasury of images of a dramatic period in U.S. history. VERDICT This biography will interest a wide audience at all levels of readership. Recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 2/11/13.]--Margaret Kappanadze, Elmira Coll. Lib., NY

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2013

We know his images (not for nothing is Mathew Brady called the father of American photography), and we can visualize the Civil War largely through his work, but how much do we know about Brady himself? American Scholar editor Wilson offers a biography rooted in the work, showing us how Brady advanced his medium in the antebellum era and how his battlefield experience affected him; after Bull Run, which he found traumatizing, he generally sent a team of his photographers into battle, visiting only well before or after the fighting. Lots of images, of course.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2013
More than any other individual, Mathew Brady is credited with the development of the new medium of photography and its recognition as an art form in the mid-nineteenth century. Photographs taken by Brady or his associates during the Civil War brought the horrors of modern warfare to the general public in a visceral and indelible manner. Yet remarkably little is known about Brady himself, perhaps due to Brady's own design. Wilson, the editor of American Scholar, does an effective, if sometimes limited, job of exploring both Brady's personal life and his artistry. He was born around 1823 in upstate New York and raised in a rural environment, but he was quickly attracted to life in New York City. By the middle of the 1840s, he was intoxicated with both the process and possibilities of photography. Wilson chronicles Brady's rise to prominence as well as the development of the medium leading up to the Civil War, Brady's role in many of the classic images of the war, and Brady's sad personal decline in the decades after the war. In the end, however, Brady remains an enigmatic, unknowable character who is best understood through his work as an artist.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)