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Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century
Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century | Kirk Wallace Johnson
"Absorbing . . . Though it's non-fiction, The Feather Thief contains many of the elements of a classic thriller." --Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air "One of the most peculiar and memorable true-crime books ever." --Christian Science Monitor A rollicking true-crime adventure and a captivating journey into an underground world of fanatical fly-tiers and plume peddlers, for readers of The Stranger in the Woods, The Lost City of Z, and The Orchid Thief. On a cool June evening in 2009, after performing a concert at London's Royal Academy of Music, twenty-year-old American flautist Edwin Rist boarded a train for a suburban outpost of the British Museum of Natural History. Home to one of the largest ornithological collections in the world, the Tring museum was full of rare bird specimens whose gorgeous feathers were worth staggering amounts of money to the men who shared Edwin's obsession: the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying. Once inside the museum, the champion fly-tier grabbed hundreds of bird skins--some collected 150 years earlier by a contemporary of Darwin's, Alfred Russel Wallace, who'd risked everything to gather them--and escaped into the darkness. Two years later, Kirk Wallace Johnson was waist high in a river in northern New Mexico when his fly-fishing guide told him about the heist. He was soon consumed by the strange case of the feather thief. What would possess a person to steal dead birds? Had Edwin paid the price for his crime? What became of the missing skins? In his search for answers, Johnson was catapulted into a years-long, worldwide investigation. The gripping story of a bizarre and shocking crime, and one man's relentless pursuit of justice, The Feather Thief is also a fascinating exploration of obsession, and man's destructive instinct to harvest the beauty of nature.
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Mollyanna
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My January choice for #12Booksof2023

Andrew65 This looks a good book! Stacked. 3mo
Mollyanna @Andrew65 It was fascinating! 3mo
julieclair This book was so good! 3mo
Mollyanna @julieclair I was a little surprised how good it was! Not a topic I would normally pick up. 3mo
julieclair @Mollyanna I probably wouldn‘t have picked it up either. It was a gift from my daughter-in-law, and I was so glad! 3mo
23 likes1 stack add5 comments
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LaurenMags
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Mehso-so

It took a while to get into. Once I did though, I found the heist to be fascinating.

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Monica5
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Panpan

Has been on my TBR List for a while. Finally, got around to reading it. I didn't care for it. If I was a fly fisherman I would have liked it better.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

TheAromaofBooks At least it's off the list!! 10mo
29 likes1 comment
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KristiAhlers
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Pickpick

A coworker loaned me her copy of this book. I was immediately sucked in to this story. A musician who plays the flute steals exotic and colorful birds from a natural history museum. Add fly fishing lures and you've got a page-turner that sucked me in. Loved the info regarding the birds and the history of feathers in fashion and in sport.

Monica5 Isn't this a true story or do I have it mixed up with another book🤷 11mo
KristiAhlers @Monica5 no this is a true story. 11mo
Monica5 @KristiAhlers I was thinking it was. Thank you 😊 11mo
See All 7 Comments
SamAnne Oh, such a good story! I got turned on to it after hearing a segment on the NPR Show This American Life. I couldn't put it down. I do fly fish and have tied some flies...uh, not with endangered bird feathers.... 11mo
CSeydel I found this book utterly fascinating! 11mo
KristiAhlers @SamAnne I totally get it. I inhaled this one in one sitting ! 11mo
KristiAhlers @CSeydel same. I had never heard of this so I was totally sucked in. 11mo
55 likes7 comments
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Mollyanna
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Pickpick

My first finish for #joyousjanuary

This is the story of a musician who was an avid fly-tyer (think fishing). He was so obsessed with the hobby and the lack of exotic bird feathers that he broke into the Natural History Museum at Tring to steal bird skins.

The author does a good job of briefly explaining the history of exotic birds before getting into the central story. Surprisingly riveting.

The narrator did a wonderful job.

Andrew65 Brilliant start 👏👏👏 (edited) 1y
Mollyanna Thanks @Andrew65 ☺️ 1y
SamAnne I loved this book! Great story telling. And I fly fish and tie some basic flies so i had additional interest for me. 1y
Mollyanna @SamAnne That is so cool! I did have some problems visualizing the fly tying and ended up looking them up in the internet. They can get very intricate. I definitely learned a lot. 😊 1y
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julieclair
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Fascinating non-fiction book about a real #Crime. Reads like a novel. So good! Who knew feathers could be so interesting? 🪶🦚
#ScarathlonDailyPrompts #TeamSlaughter @Clwojick

Texreader I agree! This was an excellent book! 1y
jlhammar This was a good one! 1y
21 likes2 comments
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Kitta
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Wanted to give a shout out to this interesting nonfiction book on sale on kindle today!

It‘s a fascinating deep dive into feather collecting, fly fishing lures, and rare birds after very rare feathers are stolen from the British Museum of Natural History.

Sounds kinda weird and quirky, but I loved it! Would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes a nonfiction crime story or thriller.

jlhammar I really liked this one too! So interesting. 2y
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Goleemn
Pickpick

Amazing! A true story, well-researched, wonderfully written. Captivating. An American teenage flautist steals hundreds of thousands of dollars of bird skins from a British museum, some more than 100 years old. The author‘s obsession with finding the skins showed just how engrossed he was in the topic. This book was hard to put down. I learned a lot about birds and the fly tying community. Hard to believe true story. Absolutely loved it!

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RebL
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Sometimes the universe knows what you need to read. I just couldn‘t with my TBR. Checked this out & was engrossed from the first page. Also, as a person who frequents natural history Museum, super annoyed by the end.

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llwheeler
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Pickpick

I didn't finish #fourfoursin21 in 21, but still finished the last two prompts this week. This was for centenary (century is in the subtitle) @Lauredhel

This has been on my library wishlist for long enough I couldn't remember why I put it on there... I think to give true crime a try (not a genre I have read) with a non-violent crime. It was a compelling read, parts very upsetting for human destruction of nature via exotic animal trade. However ⬇️

llwheeler I'm skeptical that what the author presented as the story of the heist itself is true... He didn't sell me on his sources or information. (as I said, though, not a genre I'm familiar with). Still a pick for the larger historical context of exploitation of rare birds for their feathers for fashion. 2y
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NicoleCeBallos
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Pickpick

This book made me so livid. I had to put it down multiple times because of how angry it made me. The loss to the scientific community is huge and you have this smug little white boy named Edwin Rist who still thinks he did nothing wrong.

LiteraryinLawrence That sounds infuriating. 2y
NicoleCeBallos @LiteraryinLawrence so infuriating. He stole 299 bird skins because the museum didn't need that many. He needed the feathers to sell to other fly tyers so he could buy a new flute. 2y
36 likes2 comments
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llwheeler
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More #audiostitching for #20in4! I'm about two thirds through the tagged audiobook and now up to about 9h15 total for the readathon.

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LeslieO
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#ThisWeekinNewBooks : one Kindle bargain and 3 Litsy swaps. Total for October: 13 purchased, 8 read. I‘m ready in case any supply chain issues affect the publishing industry. 😝 #MountTBR

LeahBergen I am MORE than ready (for a good 20 years or so, at least). 🤣 2y
31 likes1 comment
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smalldogs_bigbooks2419
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Favorite fruit - pluot (delicious hybrid between a plum and an apricot.
Book I‘m Anxiously Anticipating - The next in the Outlander series, even though I‘ve got several books in the series to read before I‘m ready for that.
Today I‘m grateful for - the fact that we were able to easily find a new home for our puppy. It was sad to let her go, but it‘s for the best.

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youngreadrshelf
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Pickpick

Story of young college kid who breaks into the Tring Natural History Museum to steal a bunch (flock) of rare bird skins (299). He was into the art of Victorian fly tying and the author‘s obsession of what happened to all the birds.

Interesting. Good story, great narrator. (MacLeod Andrews)

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youngreadrshelf
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Been listening to this one while driving. Really liking the narrator — MacLeod Andrews.

SamAnne I loved this story. I fish and tie some flies (poorly…) so it was up my alley. My materials are mostly elk hair and pheasant feathers and were not absconded from a museum. 😀😀 3y
youngreadrshelf @SamAnne it was very well told. I get wanting to tie for fishing purposes. I just don‘t get stealing from a museum to do it. Now maybe if it was a book I really wanted to read …😉 3y
26 likes2 comments
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Lauren_reading
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Pickpick

I wasn‘t sure what I was picking up with this book - a man obsessed with making fishing flies steals rare bird feathers from a British museum. It was such an atypical story and I was drawn into the drama right away. The author writes about the history of these collected birds - how naturalist Wallace traveled and captured them for years. Then some history of Victorian fly fishing lures and how they‘re an art form.

Lauren_reading To the current laws and rules upping prices for these rare and sometimes illegal feathers. Then Rist steals them and the author searches to find some of these still missing birds. 3y
SamAnne Loved this one. 3y
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Jgotham
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1. I don‘t know if I would say helped me per say but the Feather Thief helped me appreciate the natural world around me a little more.

2. J.K. Rowling. Never read anything but Harry Potter but that series comforts me.

3. Social media apps! This app, podcasts, Goodreads. They keep me on track and up to date on new things

#sundayfunday

BookmarkTavern I‘ve had The Feather Thief on my TBR for a while! I‘m really looking forward to it. Thanks for sharing! 3y
4 likes1 comment
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Jgotham
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Pickpick

I really liked this book. I like nature and science books and true crime so this was sooo up my alley. I had no idea how things worked in the fly thing community! This book made me so angry though with the thoughtless people in it. I totally recommend as a true crime book if you aren‘t into violence. All around engrossing book.

Jgotham I was slightly proud of Long finally standing up for himself and for trying to get others to ethically tie. Good for him. I actually really liked the kid at the end. Edwin however..lock him up and toss the key 🙄 4y
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Jgotham
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I laughed out loud at this picture. What is the guy at the bottom doing? He looks like a dead body 😆

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Jgotham
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I feel like that is so spot on. Maybe this is why these men have so much disinterest and are so unmoved by everyone else‘s care for these things. This is their own quest for status and self-importance.

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Jgotham
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I agree. I can‘t stand people thinking they own or are owed nature and will kill indiscriminately.

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Jgotham
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The audacity of some of these men! Why would anyone have to prove anything to them for their HOBBY. ugh they disgust me. The fact they think science and advancements are second to their free time passions is so mind boggling to me.

SamAnne Agree. I loved this story. 4y
7 likes1 comment
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Jgotham
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Ugh the highlighted passage above makes me sick. I despise animals being hunted for nothing but sport or “fashion”. Being Indigenous I do believe in proper harvesting but not this. No way.

KVanRead I haven‘t read this yet, but This American Life did this fascinating piece on it. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/654/the-feather-heist 4y
Jgotham @KVanRead I will have to read that one:) 4y
8 likes2 comments
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Jgotham
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Finally got my bag of coffee I ordered two weeks ago 🤦🏽‍♀️ and now I‘m gonna begin this book from the library.

Texreader It‘s a good book! Enjoy!! 4y
Jgotham @Texreader thank you:) I‘ve been looking for a nature book 4y
BarbaraTheBibliophage My favorite coffee!! ☕️ 4y
8 likes3 comments
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DAB

Looking forward to reading this book. I gushed about The Orchid Thief so much that a friend loan me his copy.

11 likes1 stack add
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TheKidUpstairs
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I know it's a different spelling, but I just keep picturing Bruce Willis... Yippee-ki-yay, mother fucker...

If they ever make I movie, I hope they cast him for a cameo, it would just be too perfect!

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thereadingowlvina
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Pickpick

???? ????? ????????

A strange and fascinating case about The Tring Heist, where hundreds of priceless preserved skins of 299 exotic birds were stolen. The question is: "??? ????? ????? ? ????? ?? ???? ??????" The answer may surprise you!

Rating: 5⭐

For my full review please visit https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3329025822?book_show_action=false&from_rev...

#truecrimethursday

Schnoebs Love this book! It‘s one of the few true crime I‘ve been able to read and I keep trying to find others like it 4y
thereadingowlvina @Schnoebs Awesome! So glad to hear that! 🙌 4y
37 likes2 comments
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Soubhiville
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Pickpick

This is the kind of nonfiction I can really dig into!

I had a brief knowledge of fly tying before reading this, but I learned so much about that hobby, and the obsessive world attached to it. I can‘t believe how easy it was for the culprit to break in to a major museum collection and make off with so much! I love the way the author pulled everything together.

Thanks to all of you who recommended this for me!

Joanne1 Oh I read about this book a while ago but had no idea how pretty it was. Sounds fascinating. 4y
SamAnne Loved the book. I fly fish and can tie a couple basic patterns. But it was a window into a fly tying subculture that I wasn‘t very aware of. 4y
Hooked_on_books When I was in health care, I had a patient who was a fly tier. He would go out early in the morning to sell flys to the fishermen on the beach. He made us plan his procedures around his sales. 😆 4y
73 likes2 stack adds3 comments
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Ncostell
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Pickpick

This is the fascinating true story of a young man‘s obsession with salmon fly-tying which drove him to break into a British natural history museum to steal hundreds of rare bird specimens. The back story of Alfred Russell Wallace, a contemporary of Darwin, who collected the specimens was really interesting too. I found this to be a non-fiction page turner that I couldn‘t put down.

kspenmoll Great review! 4y
Ncostell @kspenmoll Thanks! I really enjoyed this one! 4y
64 likes2 comments
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beaconhillbooks
Pickpick

Great audio unbelievable story.

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TracyReadsBooks
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Pickpick

You can‘t make this stuff up. Seriously. 20-year-old American virtuoso flautist studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London also happens to be an obsessive—& one of the world‘s best—Victorian Salmon Fly tiers. The only problem? The feathers used in the ties come from extinct (or near extinction) birds. It‘s illegal to trade in them & there are few available for purchase. So what‘s an enterprising young man to do? Well, steal them of course.👇

TracyReadsBooks The narrative of the crime and it‘s aftermath is riveting, the investigation of the collectors and their obsession jaw-dropping, and the perpetrator himself, Edwin artist will leave you shaking your head. A fascinating story and a great read. Highly recommended. 4y
Megabooks I enjoyed this one too!! 4y
TracyReadsBooks @Megabooks Such an interesting story and I definitely think there are still things we don‘t know. 4y
27 likes3 comments
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TracyReadsBooks
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My next nonfiction read...

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Mitch
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#newyearwhodis

So excited to get this list of @Mdargusch favourite books of 2019. Thank you so much for choosing these fab books..I can‘t wait to dive in - yeah for January!

MallenNC I‘m enjoying seeing everyone‘s lists. I‘ve already reserved a few at my library from my match‘s list. 4y
Mitch @MallenNC me too! 4y
Mdargusch I hope you find something on the list that you will enjoy! I ordered 4 books from your list last night! 😁 4y
See All 6 Comments
Mitch @Mdargusch I think I‘m going for 3, 4 and 10! 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼 4y
Mdargusch That‘s a nice mix! 4y
Mitch @Mdargusch just placed my order for books! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 4y
52 likes6 comments
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DimeryRene
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Pickpick

I never knew that I wanted so badly to learn about fly fishing, hat fashion, zoology, Darwin and less famous explorers/naturalists, museums, and weird criminal defense tactics all in one place!

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ImperfectCJ
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Pickpick

For the past week or so, I've spent my workouts listening to this nonfiction journey that begins and ends in a river in New Mexico. In between, Kirk Wallace Johnson investigates the brazen theft of feathers and preserved birds that are significant to scientific history, a source of hope for endangered species, and an obsession for a group of present-day fly-tyers.

Surprisingly engaging for a book about feathers. A Litsy rec success story!

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Heatherfeather
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Pickpick

Great book! Audio narrator was perfect, too.

ImperfectCJ Ooh! So glad you reviewed this one! I hadn't heard of it before, and it sounds great (and like something I might be able to listen to with my kids, unlike the Paul Tremblay I've been listening to). 4y
Crazeedi I've been meaning to read this one 4y
Heatherfeather @ImperfectCJ it's a true crime but, like, fun? No murder, just fascinating 4y
26 likes4 comments
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Heatherfeather
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Audio-calligraphy! This book is SO GOOD I don't want to stop. Getting lots done!

Sleepswithbooks Beautiful!!! 4y
Heatherfeather @Stacypatrice thank you!!!! 4y
20 likes2 comments
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NotCool
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What I see is a story of the struggle for authenticity...What they‘ve done is enshrined this in a period where English fishermen were members of a colonial power that ruled the entire globe and could extract fascinating things from it, then sell them in commercial markets.
“But that dream is extinct,” he said “That world is gone.”

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arlenefinnigan
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Pickpick

Had it not been for the Book Riot Read Harder challenge, there is no way I would ever have read a book about fly tying and a theft from a natural history museum, but I'm very glad I did. A quite remarkable investigative work that reads more like a thriller novel. This is a fascinating, gripping read and an insight into a niche world I was completely unaware of.

Megabooks Completely agree! 4y
LeeRHarry Thought this was great too 😊 4y
30 likes2 stack adds2 comments
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arlenefinnigan
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#ReadHarder challenge 18: a book of non-violent true crime

19 likes1 stack add
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Pamwurtzler
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#7covers7days #coverlove Day 5

Post 7 covers in 7 days, no explanation. Join in!

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Pandalibrarian
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Pickpick

Who knew there was such drama in the fly fishing and fly tying worlds? The author did a fantastic job bringing all the research and interviews into a great story.

Lauram My book club voted to read this book in November. I‘m really looking forward to reading it. 5y
33 likes1 comment
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Auntynanny
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Pickpick

This was such a bizarre story. It would be difficult to believe if it weren't a true story. A man broke into a branch of the British Natural History Museum in order to steal rare bird skins. He sold these to fellow fly-fishing lure-making enthusiasts, as well as using some in his own work.

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Auntynanny
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Library haul! Which one should I read first?

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bookishbitch
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Another one seen, then purchased, because of the beautiful cover. It also sounds quite interesting.

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ChaoticMissAdventures
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Finishing up this one this weekend for the book challenge prompt *Non violent true crime*
It is a wild ride and really educational to boot.

Nute Welcome to Litsy! It‘s a warm and friendly community. I know that you will enjoy yourself here. I‘m looking forward to getting to know you!🙂 5y
ChaoticMissAdventures Thank you! I am excited to find the community, the site and people seem like so much fun 😻 5y
8 likes2 stack adds2 comments
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slightlyfoxed
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Coming in at the eleventh hour, after radio silence all day. I‘d like to thank audiobooks, for making it possible to read while grocery shopping, and Overdrive, for making it possible to read during long Sunday afternoons at the reference desk. Maybe one day I‘ll make it through #24in48 #readathon without accidentally resetting my timer, but don‘t hold your breath.

julesG 👏👏👏👏 5y
Megabooks 🥳🥳🥳🎉🎉💃🏻💃🏻🍾🍾 5y
Eyelit 🎉📚👏📚🎉 5y
Librarybelle Great job! 5y
22 likes4 comments
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Shuga
Pickpick

I really enjoyed this book. My Daddy is a master fly-tyer so I completely understand the obsession of wanting the most perfect specimen for fishing. I just can‘t see my Daddy breaking into a museum to steal the feathers for such perfection. Thought the book was very well written but it left a lot of unanswered questions in my mind Looking forward to discussing in my next library bookclub meeting