Book excerpt: "Here is an absorbing account of the life of Louis Daguerre, the man responsible for giving us the first practical process of photography. From the beginnings of Daguerre's career in the arts as an apprentice to an architect, through his extensive work as a scene designer with the Diorama, and the successful culmination of his experiments with the daguerreotype, the Gernsheims have drawn a detailed portrait of a man whose invention has been called the greatest since that of the printing press. The world greeted the announcement of Daguerre's achievement with astonishment, skepticism, and even scorn. Nowadays photography is so completely taken for granted that it is difficult to realize how startling to Daguerre's contemporaries was the idea that nature could be made to produce a picture unaided by the artist. The news spread like wildfire. The daguerreotype was the most talked-of topic in Europe; the moment the people heard of it they were consumed with curiosity as to how it was done. The method was kept a zealously guarded secret for many months and eventually seemed to some to be a swindle. Others disapproved on moral and religious grounds. One German newspaper thundered indignantly, 'Is it possible that God should have abandoned His eternal principles, and allowed a Frenchman in Paris to give to the world an invention of the Devil?'"--Dust jacket.