Inventing Niagara: Beauty, Power, and Lies

Strand, Ginger

ISBN 10: 1416546561 / ISBN 13: 9781416546566

Published by Simon & Schuster, 2008

About this Item

Stated First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition May 2008. In addition there is a complete number line including number one. Hard cover in very good condition with cream boards and spine cloth and gold gilt spine lettering. Signed by the author on the Title Page (signature not authenticated.) Otherwise text block clean & tight; no writings, no markings noted. Contains a section of glossy black & white and colored photographs and illustrations. Dust jacket very good with light shelf and edge wear, and very unusual, when opened up completely dust jacket measures 23 1/2" wide x 18 5/8" tall. See photo of entire jacket. Folds to fit the book. What can't be completely seen when folded are photos that look very much like postcards and depict scenes around the falls. Not price clipped. * Noted on the copyright page: 'Material in this book has appeared previously in 'The Believer,' 'Orion,' and the anthology 'The Future of Nature.' From the book, 'Combining history, reportage and personal narrative, .traces Niagara's journey from sublime icon to engineering marvel to camp spectacle. . . .uncovers the hidden history of America's waterfall.'.

Seller Inventory # M001205

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Inventing Niagara: Beauty, Power, and Lies
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1416546561
• ISBN 13: 9781416546566
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Signed &/or Inscribed
  • History of New York
  • Geography & Maps

About this title

Synopsis

Americans call Niagara Falls a natural wonder, but the Falls aren't very natural anymore. In fact, they are a study in artifice. Water diverted, riverbed reshaped, brink stabilized and landscape redesigned, the Falls are more a monument to man's meddling than to nature's strength. Held up as an example of something real, they are hemmed in with fakery -- waxworks, haunted houses, IMAX films and ersatz Indian tales. A symbol of American manifest destiny, they are shared politely with Canada. Emblem of nature's power, they are completely human-controlled. Archetype of natural beauty, they belie an ugly environmental legacy still bubbling up from below. On every level, Niagara Falls is a monument to how America falsifies nature, reshaping its contours and redirecting its force while claiming to submit to its will.

Combining history, reportage and personal narrative, Inventing Niagara traces Niagara's journey from sublime icon to engineering marvel to camp spectacle. Along the way, Ginger Strand uncovers the hidden history of America's waterfall: the Mohawk chief who wrested the Falls from his adopted tribe, the revered town father who secretly assisted slave catchers, the wartime workers who unknowingly helped build the Bomb and the building contractor who bought and sold a pharaoh. With an uncanny ability to zero in on the buried truth, Strand introduces us to underwater dams, freaks of nature, mythical maidens and 280,000 radioactive mice buried at Niagara.

From LaSalle to Lincoln to Los Alamos, Mohawks to Marilyn, Niagara's story is America's story, a tale of dreams founded on the mastery of nature. At a time of increasing environmental crisis, Inventing Niagara shows us how understanding the cultural history of nature might help us rethink our place in it today.

About the Author

Ginger Strand was raised in Texas, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Her fiction and essays have appeared in many places, including The Believer, The Iowa Review, The Gettysburg Review, and The Carolina Quarterly. She has been awarded fiction residencies by Yaddo, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Sewanee Writers' Conference. She lives in New York City.