The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century

Product Information

The author became obsessed with the story of Edwin Rist, a young American flautist and expert tier of salmon flies, who, after performing at a June 2009 London concert, broke into the nearby British Natural History Museum at Tring to steal 299 rare bird skins, including 37 of naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace’s “beloved” Birds of Paradise. When he's not behind his laptop typing, you can probably find him chasing wild trout in his home state of Pennsylvania, or wading somewhere in the tropics!

Johnson goes deep into the exotic bird and feather trade and concludes that though obsession and greed know no bounds, they certainly make for a fascinating tale. My craving for adventure came in the story of Alfred Russell Wallace, a contemporary of Darwin, whose first expedition to collect specimens in exotic places ended with all being lost in a ship fire.takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. For those of us interested in the natural world and its preservation and study they are, of course, also saddening, frustrating and even sickening since they overwhelmingly centre around the plundering of items in the public trust for selfish personal or financial gain. Journalist Johnson ( To Be a Friend Is Fatal: The Fight to Save the Iraqis America Left Behind, 2013) was fly-fishing in a New Mexico stream when he first heard about the “feather thief” from his guide. An insider knowledge of what the collections consist of, how they work and what the entire facility is like is also helpful in appreciating the story Johnson relates, in particular because opinions promoted by some of the characters Johnson interviewed – people belonging to the community of elite fly-tiers of which Rist is or was a part – smell like the bullshit they are. It retraces the background of the 20-year-old American thief, professional flautist, and master fly-tier, Edwin Rist, who stole 299 rare bird skins from the museum.

His forthcoming book, The Fishermen and the Dragon: Fear, Greed, and a Fight for Justice on the Gulf Coast, is also being adapted into a limited series and will be published by Viking on August 9. With a wire cutter, glass cutter, rock, and suitcase, Edwin successfully stole 299 bird skins, including some collected by Wallace, from the museum. Due to the rarity of the birds, the world came together and enacted a treaty to protect them, and other rare and endangered species. A taxonomist who is credited with discovering “a full fifth of fish known to man in his day,” Jordan had amassed an unparalleled collection of ichthyological specimens.

Ji įvykdyta iš aistros žvejybinėms muselėms, pagamintoms iš retų ir net jau išnykusių paukščių plunksnų. And there’s also the author, a refugee advocate, who got involved in this story and needed to know after the trial what was still unknown and began to investigate himself–because of course this book had plot twists! This why-dunnit thriller is a must-read and will make an absolute must-watch,” said Beatrice Springborn, President, Universal International Studios. Edwin Rist's story fascinated Johnson not just because it was such a bizarre crime, but because of the underground world it revealed, where other tiers (this is how it's spelled, which drives me BONKERS; I keep wanting it to be spelled "tyers") chase rarer and rarer feathers, many of which come from endangered bird species that are protected by international treaties. I found it such a chore to get through that I become thoroughly dispirited and bored, and I put the book down and left it for months.