The Jump Artist is based on the true story of Philippe Halsman, a man who Adolf Hitler knew by name, who Sigmund Freud wrote about in 1930, and who put Marilyn Monroe on the cover of Life magazine. 

    The story begins in September 1928, when Halsman and his father were hiking in the Tyrolean Alps.  While Halsman went ahead on the trail, his father was attacked and murdered.  The Jewish 22 year old from Latvia found himself alone in hostile territory; Nazism was on the rise and Innsbruck’s foremost forensic pathologist, Karl Meixner, among others, saw to it that Halsman would be tried for killing his father.  It was a miscarriage of justice that presaged the many horrors to come in Austria, and though the events are now lost in the shadow of the 

Holocaust, they were then known across Europe as ‘The Austrian Dreyfus Affair.’  Many intellectuals, including Albert Einstein, came to Halsman’s aid in a public battle that pitted reason against irrational prejudice.  Ultimately, Halsman transformed himself from a victim of history into the world-famous Life photographer who defined American post-war optimism.  However, he kept his tragic past a secret.

    Relying on historical documents newly translated from German, the novel traces the arc of Halsman’s personal life from fear, distortion, and despair to courage, truth, and joy.

Order the book here.

Find out more about Philippe Halsman and his work.