The Emergence of Cinema: The American Screen to 1907 (Volume 1) (History of the American Cinema) 1st Paperback Edition

This book, correction by Bowser only,is a part of the ten volume History of American Cinema series from Editor, Charles H. Harpole's Cinema History Project. The series is often listed in a bundle of ten separate books under Harpole's authorship. Some advertisements for one book imply the sale is for all ten books, beware, and some imply sale of all ten books as a set. Read carefully. The series contains ten individual books.The paperback versions are exact reprints of the hardback books except for the paper binding.The hardback paper is library grade. All illustrations or photographs are in black and white in the entire set.The set remains as the standard history of American cinema from 1895 to 1990. Due to the virtual collapse of serious book publishing, this series will likely remain the last of its kind. In a way, it represents the end of several eras: end of the movie industry distinctive from its merge with TV and video games, end of this kind of book publishing*, and end of the writing of history that is basically chronological and not undercut by theoretical deconstructions of meaning. The research and documentation are scholarly and the text is synthetic in that it is a narrative of a period in time useful as a reference work and as an understanding of the interrelationships of factors, as well.*2013: the current copyright holder, Centgage, is in bankruptcy proceedings, and the ownership of the series went through at least six publishing companies as one company closed/sold off assets after another as each tried to survive in the computer age.

This is an excellent, comprehensive and well-written analysis of the early cinema. It is written including views of the study of film history as well as numerous concrete examples of films for every point made by the author.Even if you're not a film student, check out this book. It's so well written that one can easily fall into the interesting history of an emerging art form and industry. The origins of cinema reach far back into the 17th century and, considering the enormous impact that film has on everyone's life, the origins of this most important art form of the past century are vitally important to you.

Absolutely incredible and eye-opening book! Have you ever wondered how movies were presented in the early days of cinema? This book gives a very detailed description of the first establishments who exhibited motion pictures as well as the corporate dealings (and backstabbings!) of the companies (Edison, Biograh, Lumiere Brothers, and others) who raced to perfect their technologies and make a profit on the new medium. The book is extremely well-researched and complete down to looking at invoices and profit sheets as well as attendances of early movie-goers and even reactions from individual patrons to specific films. I would heartily recommend it to anyone interested in early cinema or American history in general.