Jonathan Auerbach is Professor of English at the University of Maryland, College Park and is the author of Male Call: Becoming Jack London (1996) and The Romance of Failure: First-Person Fictions of Poe, Hawthorne, and James (1989).

"It is essential reading and serve to remind us of the richness of this period of cinema production for film scholarship." -- Anna Dzenis Screening The Past "Brings a refreshing perspective to the study of early cinema." -- Abigail Salerno American Literature "Carefully locating his work in relation to scholarship that has characterized the period as 'cinema of attractions,' Auerbach provides a supplement to, rather than a repudiation of, this important scholarship." -- Steve J. Wurtzler Journal Of American History "Delightful ... Perhaps most refreshing in Auerbach's writing is his healthy appetite for the action, and the people acting." Year's Work In Critical And Cultural Theory "Clever, erudite, illuminating, and maddening." American Studies Journal

• List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: Body, Movement, Space PART I. BODIES IN PUBLIC 1. Looking In: McKinley at Home 2. Looking Out: Visualizing Self-Consciousness Interlude. The Vocal Gesture: Sounding the Origins of Cinema PART II. BODIES IN SPACE 3. Chasing Film Narrative 4. Windows 1900; or, Life of an American Fireman Conclusion: The Stilled Body Notes Bibliography Index