MAN WHO INVENTED MOTION PICTURES

A true tale of obsession, murder and the movies filled with lively historical digressions, the book was voted by the New York Times the Best True Crime of 2022. In 1888, Louis Le Prince shot the world's first motion picture in Leeds, UK. In 1890, weeks before the planned public unveiling of his camera and projector, Le Prince boarded a train in France and disappeared without a trace. His body was never found. In 1891, Thomas Edison, inventor of the lightbulb and the phonograph, announced that he had developed a motion-picture camera. Le Prince's family, convinced that Edison had stolen Louis's work, proceeded to sue the most famous inventor in the world. By the time the lawsuit was over, Le Prince's own son was dead under suspicious circumstances, and modern Hollywood was being born. Fischer's new book excavates one of the Victorian ages great unsolved mysteries, skilfully articulating the narrative of one of the forgotten figures in cinematic history. Briskly paced and elegantly told this is a true movie murder mystery and real life whodunnit. 392pp, paperback, eight pages of archive photos.