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In the Shadow of Genius: The Brooklyn Bridge and Its Creators
Named a Gift Book for the Discerning New Yorker by The New York Times
In the Shadow of Genius is the newest book by photographer and author Barbara Mensch. The author combines her striking photographs with a powerful first-person narrative. She takes the reader on a unique journey by recalling her experiences living alongside the bridge for more than 30 years, and then by tracing her own curious path to understand the brilliant minds and remarkable lives of those who built John, Washington, and Emily Roebling.
Many of Mensch’s photographs were inspired by her visits to the Roebling archives housed at Rutgers University, where she pieced together through notebooks, diaries, letters, and drawings the seminal locations and events that affected their lives. Following in their footsteps, Mensch traveled to Mühlhausen, Germany, the birthplace of John Roebling; to Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, where Roebling established a utopian community in 1831; to Roebling aqueducts and bridges in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York; and to the Civil War battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where Washington Roebling, the son of the famous engineer, valiantly served as a Union soldier. The book begins and ends with Mensch’s unique photographs of the Brooklyn Bridge, including never-before-seen images captured deep within the structure. The book creatively fuses contemporary photography with the historical record, giving the reader a new perspective on contemplating the masterwork.
Fernanda Perrone, Curator of Special Collections and the Roebling Family Archive at Rutgers University, has contributed a Foreword.
In the Shadow of Genius is the newest book by photographer and author Barbara Mensch. The author combines her striking photographs with a powerful first-person narrative. She takes the reader on a unique journey by recalling her experiences living alongside the bridge for more than 30 years, and then by tracing her own curious path to understand the brilliant minds and remarkable lives of those who built John, Washington, and Emily Roebling.
Many of Mensch’s photographs were inspired by her visits to the Roebling archives housed at Rutgers University, where she pieced together through notebooks, diaries, letters, and drawings the seminal locations and events that affected their lives. Following in their footsteps, Mensch traveled to Mühlhausen, Germany, the birthplace of John Roebling; to Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, where Roebling established a utopian community in 1831; to Roebling aqueducts and bridges in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York; and to the Civil War battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where Washington Roebling, the son of the famous engineer, valiantly served as a Union soldier. The book begins and ends with Mensch’s unique photographs of the Brooklyn Bridge, including never-before-seen images captured deep within the structure. The book creatively fuses contemporary photography with the historical record, giving the reader a new perspective on contemplating the masterwork.
Fernanda Perrone, Curator of Special Collections and the Roebling Family Archive at Rutgers University, has contributed a Foreword.
- GenresNonfiction
160 pages, Hardcover
Published November 20, 2018
19 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 6, 2018
I was pleased to receive a sampler of this new book.
Unfortunately, the 10 pages offered are about 7% of the actual book; the pages chosen are seemingly random as they are not consecutive pages. Rather they cover the three main thrusts of the book.
The early days back in Muhlhausen, Germany to the plans to build an utopian community in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania.
A decendent's experience fighting for the Union against General Lee at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Finally, with an extract from the building of the Brooklyn Bridge.
So it is hard to judge and reflect fairly on the composite book. What is clear however is the tremendous research undertaken to bring this project into print. The author Barbara Mensch has collected and chosen wonderful photographs to compliment her simple narrative recording this epic journey and monumental construction of New York's famous bridge.
What I can say, it is a wide searching piece of research, backed up by a photographer's eye to enhance her text. I love history and this is the basic story of America. Immigrants making a proud and lasting contribution to a nation that has risen to dominate the modern world.
However, I think it will be the black and white photgraphs that make this an outstanding gift for someone or a present to yourself to own a substantial record of the history of the USA and the people who made a difference. Like any dream, these early pioneers took risks but never lost sight of their hopes, this was passed on to their descendents. While an utopia was perhaps never realised, a whole new country was forged, and the Brooklyn Bridge continues to draw visitors and photographers to witness and record its majestic form.
That the author has been living alongside the bridge for more than 30 years makes her insights and reflections worth seeing her images and reading her words.
Unfortunately, the 10 pages offered are about 7% of the actual book; the pages chosen are seemingly random as they are not consecutive pages. Rather they cover the three main thrusts of the book.
The early days back in Muhlhausen, Germany to the plans to build an utopian community in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania.
A decendent's experience fighting for the Union against General Lee at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Finally, with an extract from the building of the Brooklyn Bridge.
So it is hard to judge and reflect fairly on the composite book. What is clear however is the tremendous research undertaken to bring this project into print. The author Barbara Mensch has collected and chosen wonderful photographs to compliment her simple narrative recording this epic journey and monumental construction of New York's famous bridge.
What I can say, it is a wide searching piece of research, backed up by a photographer's eye to enhance her text. I love history and this is the basic story of America. Immigrants making a proud and lasting contribution to a nation that has risen to dominate the modern world.
However, I think it will be the black and white photgraphs that make this an outstanding gift for someone or a present to yourself to own a substantial record of the history of the USA and the people who made a difference. Like any dream, these early pioneers took risks but never lost sight of their hopes, this was passed on to their descendents. While an utopia was perhaps never realised, a whole new country was forged, and the Brooklyn Bridge continues to draw visitors and photographers to witness and record its majestic form.
That the author has been living alongside the bridge for more than 30 years makes her insights and reflections worth seeing her images and reading her words.
July 17, 2019
IN THE SHADOW OF GENIUS: THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE AND ITS CREATORS is a brilliant look at one of the most famous bridges in the world by photographer and author Barbara Mensch. As one who has lived in its shadow for three decades, Mensch brings an intimate awareness of the towering structure through her evocative photographs and personal narrative. She also sheds new light on the Roebling masterpiece as she describes the lives of its creators, John, Washington, and Emily Roebling, drawn through study of notebooks, diaries, letters, and illustrations reflecting major events and locations affecting their lives. 5/5
Pub Date 16 Oct 2018
Thanks to Fordham University Press and NetGalley for the ARC. Opinions are mine.
#InTheShadowOfGenius #NetGalley
Pub Date 16 Oct 2018
Thanks to Fordham University Press and NetGalley for the ARC. Opinions are mine.
#InTheShadowOfGenius #NetGalley
January 18, 2019
more like 3.5
most of this book is not about the bridge and its creation, but about the patriarch of the family behind it and his life, his work (fascinating and unbelievable as it is), and then his son and his son's wife, the two of them the ones primarily responsible for further design and pressing for the bridge work to continue after he died.
the photos of the bridge (there aren't as many as one might expect) are gorgeous, of course (is there a bad photo of this bridge? anywhere?), and the author's perspective as one living so close to it are of interest, but while the family details were interesting as well, many of them didn't seem pertinent to the scope of the book. personally, I was intrigued by Washington's American Civil War recollections, but pages into it, I thought it was veering away from the book's purpose. the author - who is primarily a photographer - simply seems to have been so excited by her findings that she tried to fit what she wanted most into the text without really culling it to fulfill a reader's expectation of the title and summary. I understand this excitement (believe me, I do) but I can see readers picking this up and flipping through it to find the photos and dismissing the text because of it, and that would be a shame, as there are interesting (although too few) details on the family's work on and for the bridge of the title.
most of this book is not about the bridge and its creation, but about the patriarch of the family behind it and his life, his work (fascinating and unbelievable as it is), and then his son and his son's wife, the two of them the ones primarily responsible for further design and pressing for the bridge work to continue after he died.
the photos of the bridge (there aren't as many as one might expect) are gorgeous, of course (is there a bad photo of this bridge? anywhere?), and the author's perspective as one living so close to it are of interest, but while the family details were interesting as well, many of them didn't seem pertinent to the scope of the book. personally, I was intrigued by Washington's American Civil War recollections, but pages into it, I thought it was veering away from the book's purpose. the author - who is primarily a photographer - simply seems to have been so excited by her findings that she tried to fit what she wanted most into the text without really culling it to fulfill a reader's expectation of the title and summary. I understand this excitement (believe me, I do) but I can see readers picking this up and flipping through it to find the photos and dismissing the text because of it, and that would be a shame, as there are interesting (although too few) details on the family's work on and for the bridge of the title.
August 25, 2018
An interesting narrative about those who built the Brooklyn Bridge. Personally, I was mostly impressed by the pictures in the book which I think are stunning. The artist looked for beauty and I believe the pictures can really attest to it. I received a free copy via NetGalley.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews