A polymath visionary, Harry Smith embodied contradiction: anthropologist, filmmaker, painter, and folklorist who mentored Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe in occult studies, rubbed shoulders with Timothy Leary and Thelonious Monk, and earned Susan Sontag's admiration. Despite his genius—founding the Anthology of American Folk Music and pioneering experimental cinema—Smith battled poverty, addiction, and a temperament that alienated those around him. Yet as Robert Frank observed, he was "the only person I met in my life that transcended everything."
In Cosmic Scholar, Grammy Award-winning biographer John Szwed weaves together the first complete portrait of this overlooked twentieth-century cultural titan. From documenting Native American traditions across the Pacific Northwest and Florida to his transformative years in Greenwich Village, Smith pursued an obsessive unified theory of culture. His legacy: a restless creator and collector whose work shaped American music and film, even as his personal demons rendered him unable to sustain stability or health.