We all know that Mark Sloan runs an adventurous gallery program for the Halsey Gallery, but did you know that he is an author as well? His most recent book, Wild, Weird and Wonderful: The American Circus 1901-1927 as seen by F.W. Glasier, Photographer has just been released by W.W. Norton & Co. While researching material for another book, Mark ran across a group of compelling photographs by Glasier in the archive of the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida. “I could tell from those few images that this was a terrific photographer.” He began looking for other images by Glasier and gradually came up with the sixty-five that illustrate this new book. “Glasier’s photographs provide a rare prism through which we can see the lives of circus performers during the most vibrant period in circus history—the early 20th century.” Glowing reviews of the book have already appeared in Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Entertainment Weekly, and in the web publication salon.com. He was just interviewed about the book on the National Public Radio program “The Book Guys.” Congratulations, Mark!

While on sabbatical this semester, Mark has been shuttling back and forth between Charleston and Cambridge, Massachusets, where he is completing work on his next book: Rarest of the Rare: Stunning Specimens at the Harvard Museum of Natural History. He is co-authoring the book with natural history writer Nancy Pick and producing the photographs to accompany the text. The book will be published in the fall of 2004 by HarperCollins and, along with Mark’s photographs of things like the world’s largest intact egg, Nabokov’s butterfly genitalia cabinet (the writer worked as a scientist at this museum for several years), and shipworms from the Titanic, there will be an introduction by two-time Pulitzer Prize winning scientist E.O. Wilson. Mark’s other books include: Hoaxes, Humbugs, and Spectacles: Astonishing Photographs of Smelt Wrestlers, Human Projectiles, Giant Hailstones, Contortionists, Elephant Impersonators, and Much, Much, More! (Villard Books/Random House 1990)— co-authored with Michelle Van Parys and Roger Manley, Dear Mr. Ripley: A Compendium of Curioddities from the Believe It or Not Archives (Bulfinch Press/Little, Brown, & Co. 1993) — co-authored with Michelle Van Parys and Roger Manley, PHOTOGLYPHS: Rimma Gerlovina and Valeriy Gerlovin (New Orleans Museum of Art, 1993), and Self-Made Worlds: Visionary Folk Art Environments (Aperture,1997) co-authored with Roger Manley.